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New NPR-A plan draws two suits from environmental groups
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
Groups of environmental organizations have filed two lawsuits in the federal District Court in Alaska, challenging the legality of the Bureau of Land Management’s final environmental impact statement for a revised integrated activity plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. BLM proposes opening more NPR-A land for oil and gas exploration and development. The environmental organizations argue that the proposal does not adequately consider potential environmental degradation resulting from the opening up of some environmentally sensitive areas in the reserve.
Generally, in lawsuits of this nature the court will defer to the technical expertise of a government agency in making its decisions. Rather, the court will tend to consider whether that expertise was adequately and appropriately applied, and whether the agency followed the correct procedures, as required by the relevant laws.
Rework of 2013 IAP The existing IAP for the NPR-A, issued in 2013 under the Obama administration, made 11.8 million acres of the 23 million-acre reserve available for oil and gas leasing. The plan placed some large environmentally sensitive areas off limits, including areas around Teshekpuk Lake, Smith Bay and Admiralty Bay in the northern part of the reserve. These more northerly areas span a region now thought to be particularly prospective for new oil discoveries. However, areas such as Teshekpuk Lake and its surrounds are important breeding grounds for waterfowl and support Arctic wildlife such as caribou.
As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to support US oil and gas production, in May 2017 then Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a rework of BLM’s NPR-A plan. BLM said that, in reworking the plan, it would be responding to requests from the State of Alaska and the North Slope Borough to increase opportunities in the region, taking into account new technologies and increased knowledge of the area. A new plan could enable greater economic development while continuing to protect important environmental and subsistence resources, BLM said.
In June of this year BLM published its final EIS for its new IAP. The preferred option in the new plan would open an additional 7 million acres for energy development. The Teshekpuk Lake special area would be opened, but with stipulations for no surface occupancy and with timing limitations for activities. A core part another special area, the Utukok River uplands special area, would not be available for leasing and new infrastructure, although there would be corridors in this special area available for leasing but with timing limitations and with some infrastructure constraints.
Challenge within 60 days In one of the lawsuits challenging the new final EIS, the four environmental organizations filing the lawsuit told the court that the timing of the filing reflected a requirement that any legal challenge to the FEIS must be brought to court within 60 days of the availability of the FEIS. The organizations said that, following BLM’s record of decision on the FEIS, they plan to submit an amended filing, detailing claims made in their initial filing. Those initial claims essentially say that the FEIS does not analyze or describe the full scale of the potential impacts of the plan on the NPR-A, including the consequences of holding annual oil and gas lease sales, and the impacts on the climate and the reserve’s natural resources.
All options, other than the no-action alternative, in the new NPR-A plan would allow the expansion of oil and gas leasing in the reserve, while not recognizing that recent scientific information indicates that the reserve deserves more protection rather than less, the filing says. All of the options remove protections for the Colville River Special Area. And the FEIS fails to consider the climate change impacts of carbon emissions from the use of oil potentially produced from the areas opened in the plan’s preferred option, the filing says.
Moreover, the FEIS includes changes to the draft EIS that were not subject to public review or comment, and that do not appear to respond to public comments on the draft document, the filing says.
The environmental organizations also question a statement that the plan FEIS will fulfill the NEPA requirements for the holding of lease sales in the NPR-A, at least through December 2039.
Questions of legality The second court challenge, submitted by six other environmental organizations, argues that the FEIS contravenes NEPA, the Administrative Procedures Act and the National Petroleum Reserve Production Act - the NPRPA is the statute specifying the legal framework for BLM’s management of the NPR-A. Under the terms of the NPRPA, special areas such as the Teshekpuk Lake and Colville River Special Areas have been designated as requiring maximum environmental protection, the filing says.
The filing lists a number of recent oil discoveries and developments in or adjacent the northern part of the NPR-A, including ConocoPhillips’ Greater Mooses Tooth 1 and 2 developments, ConocoPhillips Willow discovery and Caelus Energy’s Smith Bay discovery. With significant oil interest in the region, a 2019 NPR-A lease sale attracted a large number of bids, including bids on land tracts to the south of Teshekpuk Lake, the filing says.
Numerous commenters have expressed concerns with the new EIS and have argued that BLM has not conducted an adequate NEPA analysis: The agency needs to consider a reasonable range of alternatives, and to protect the special areas in the NPR-A as mandated by the NPRPA, the filing says.
Thus BLM’s inadequate analysis violates NEPA, the NPRPA and the Administrative Procedures Act, the appellees claim.
- ALAN BAILEY
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