Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Miles City Field Office, Montana, 43432-43433 [2024-10793]
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43432
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 97 / Friday, May 17, 2024 / Notices
vary the amount of BLM-administered
Federal coal authorized to be available
for leasing. The alternatives include:
• Alternative A (the No Leasing
Alternative): the Coal Development
Potential Area would be unavailable for
leasing;
• Alternative B (the No Action
Alternative): approximately 48.0 billion
short tons of recoverable BLMadministered coal within the Coal
Development Potential Area established
in the 2019 RMP Amendment and Final
Supplemental EIS would be available
for further consideration of leasing; and
• Alternative C: a reduced level of
coal (1.24 billion short tons of
recoverable BLM-administered coal)
would be available for leasing within
the Coal Development Potential Area.
The BLM further considered three
additional alternatives but dismissed
them from detailed analysis, as
explained in the Proposed RMP
Amendment and Final Supplemental
EIS.
The BLM selected Alternative A, the
No Leasing Alternative, as the proposed
plan for allocating BLM administered
coal; under this alternative, no BLM
administered coal would be available
for leasing within the Buffalo Field
Office planning area. The proposed plan
does not affect the area with coal
development potential or the area
determined to be suitable for surface
coal mining. Collectively, the mines
have sufficient federal coal leased to
meet forecasted production levels into
2041. The remaining leased coal volume
provides time to advance commercial
scale carbon capture and non-thermal
coal use technologies during the
planning period.
The BLM published a notice of
availability for the Draft Supplemental
EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in
the Federal Register on May 8, 2023,
which initiated a 90-day comment
period (88 FR 29691). On May 31, the
BLM hosted a public meeting in Gillette,
Wyoming, to present the Draft
Supplemental EIS and RMP
Amendment to the public and solicit
comments. The BLM also hosted an online public meeting on June 5, 2023.
During the public comment period,
the BLM received 25 unique written
submissions containing 147 substantive
comments. The Draft Supplemental EIS
comments helped the BLM refine the
Final Supplemental EIS and guided the
development of the Proposed RMP
Amendment.
interest that will or may be adversely
affected by approval of the Proposed
RMP may protest its approval. Protest of
the Proposed RMP constitutes the final
opportunity for administrative review of
the proposed land use planning
decisions prior to the BLM adopting an
approved RMP. Instructions for filing a
protest with the BLM Director may be
found online at https://www.blm.gov/
programs/planning-and-nepa/publicparticipation/filing-a-plan-protest and
at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. All protests must be
in writing and mailed to the appropriate
address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section earlier or submitted
electronically through the BLM
ePlanning project website as described
previously. Protests submitted
electronically by any means other than
the ePlanning project website will be
invalid unless a protest is also
submitted as a hard copy. The BLM will
render a written decision on each
protest. The Director’s protest decision
shall be the final decision of the
Department of the Interior. Responses to
protest issues will be compiled and
documented in a Protest Resolution
Report made available following the
protest resolution online at: https://
www.blm.gov/programs/planning-andnepa/public-participation/protestresolution-reports. After resolution of
protests, the BLM will issue a Record of
Decision and Approved RMP.
Before including your address, phone
number, email address, or other
personal identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that
your entire comment—including your
personal identifying information—may
be made publicly available at any time.
While you can ask us in your comment
to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10,
43 CFR 1610.2)
Andrew Archuleta,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024–10792 Filed 5–16–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331–20–P
Protest of the Proposed RMP
The BLM planning regulations state
that any person who participated in the
preparation of the RMP and has an
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:20 May 16, 2024
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[BLM_MT_FRN_MO4500178570]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed
Resource Management Plan
Amendment and Final Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement for
the Miles City Field Office, Montana
Bureau of Land Management,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
AGENCY:
In compliance with the
National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the
Federal Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976, as amended, the Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) has prepared
a Proposed Resource Management Plan
(RMP) Amendment and Final
Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for public lands
managed by the Miles City Field Office
and by this notice is announcing the
opportunity to protest the Proposed
RMP Amendment.
DATES: The BLM Director will consider
protests to the Proposed RMP
Amendment. Protests must be
postmarked or electronically submitted
on the BLM’s ePlanning site within 30
days after the Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) publication of a Notice
of Availability (NOA) of the Proposed
RMP Amendment and Final EIS in the
Federal Register. The EPA usually
publishes NOAs on Fridays.
ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP
Amendment and Final Supplemental
EIS are available for review on the BLM
ePlanning project website at https://
eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/
project/2021155/510. Documents
pertinent to this proposal may be
examined online at https://eplanning.
blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021155/
510 and at the Miles City Field Office.
Instructions for filing a protest on the
Proposed RMP Amendment can be
found at https://www.blm.gov/
programs/planning-and-nepa/publicparticipation/filing-a-plan-protest and
at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. All protests must be
submitted in writing and mailed to one
of the following by any one of the
following methods:
• Website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/
eplanning-ui/project/2021155/510.
• Regular and Overnight Mail: BLM
Director, Attention: Protest Coordinator
(HQ210), Denver Federal Center,
Building 40 (Door W–4), Lakewood, CO
80215.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Irma
Nansel, Project Manager, telephone
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\17MYN1.SGM
17MYN1
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 97 / Friday, May 17, 2024 / Notices
(406) 233–3653; or at the address BLM
Miles City Field Office, 111 Garryowen
Road, Miles City, MT 59301; email
inansel@blm.gov. Individuals in the
United States who are deaf, deafblind,
hard of hearing, or have a speech
disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or
TeleBraille) to access
telecommunications relay services.
Individuals outside the United States
should use the relay services offered
within their country to make
international calls to the point-ofcontact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM
prepared the Proposed Plan
Amendment and Final Supplemental
EIS to address a United States District
Court for the District of Montana order
(Western Organization of Resource
Councils, et al. v. BLM; CV 00076–GF–
BMM; 8/3/2022). The Final
Supplemental EIS provides additional
land use planning level analysis that
considers no-leasing and limited coal
leasing alternatives; discloses the public
health impacts, both climate and nonclimate, of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil,
and gas); and completes new coal
screens in accordance with 43 CFR
3420.1–4 to determine the lands to be
made available for further consideration
for coal leasing in the planning area.
The Miles City planning area is
located in Carter, Custer, Daniels,
Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, McCone,
Powder River, Prairie, Richland,
Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Treasure,
Wibaux, and portions of Big Horn and
Valley Counties, Montana, and
encompasses approximately 2.7 million
surface acres of BLM-managed public
land and 11.7 million acres of Federal
coal mineral estate.
The BLM has analyzed four
alternatives in detail, including the No
Action Alternative and three
alternatives that vary the amount of
BLM-administered Federal coal
available for further consideration for
coal leasing.
The No Action Alternative is the
decision from the 2019 Approved RMP
Amendment, which identified
approximately 1,214,380 acres of
Federal coal as available for further
consideration for coal leasing across the
Miles City Field Office.
The action alternatives applied the
coal screens (43 CFR 3420.1–4(e)) using
current data and evaluated the issues
identified through internal and public
scoping. Application of coal screen 1
(development potential) identified
approximately 1,745,000 Federal coal
acres as having development potential.
The action alternatives also address the
NEPA deficiencies identified by the
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:20 May 16, 2024
Jkt 262001
court order associated with the
application of the multiple-use screen.
Specifically, they apply a multiple-use
climate change criterion that uses
greenhouse gas emissions as a proxy for
climate change. Reducing availability of
Federal lands for coal leasing reduces
the contribution of greenhouse gas
emissions from the development and
combustion of Federal coal from the
planning area.
Alternative B analyzes approximately
69,310 acres of Federal coal as available
for further consideration for coal
leasing. Alternative C analyzes
approximately 810 acres of Federal coal
as available for further consideration for
coal leasing, and Alternative D, the
Proposed RMP, analyzes 0 (zero) acres
of Federal coal as available for further
consideration for coal leasing. The BLM
revised the coal reasonably foreseeable
development scenario from the 2015
Miles City RMP using the most current
publicly available coal production data
to forecast development during the
planning period, which runs to 2038.
The revised reasonably foreseeable
development scenario was applied to all
alternatives.
The BLM further considered one
additional alternative but dismissed it
from detailed analysis, as explained in
the Final Supplemental EIS.
The BLM selected Alternative D as the
proposed plan for allocating BLM
administered coal; under this
alternative, no Federal coal would be
available for leasing within the Miles
City Field Office planning area. The
proposed plan does not affect the area
with coal development potential or the
area determined to be suitable for
surface coal mining. The BLM has
determined that additional leasing of
Federal coal is not necessary based on
the current analysis in the Final
Supplemental EIS. The analysis
indicates that operating mines in the
planning area have existing leases with
sufficient coal reserves to maintain
existing mine production levels until
2035 for Spring Creek Mine and 2060
for Rosebud Mine.
The BLM published a notice of
availability for the Draft Supplemental
EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in
the Federal Register on May 8, 2023 (88
FR 29689), which initiated a 90-day
comment period. On June 6th, the BLM
hosted a public meeting at the BLM
Miles City Field Office in Miles City,
Montana, to present the Draft
Supplemental EIS and RMP
Amendment to the public and solicit
comments. The BLM also hosted an online public meeting on June 7, 2023.
Eight members of the public attended
the online meeting. During the public
PO 00000
Frm 00064
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 9990
43433
comment period, the BLM received 14
unique written submissions containing
167 substantive comments. The Draft
Supplemental EIS comments helped the
BLM refine the Final Supplemental EIS
and guided the development of the
Proposed RMP Amendment.
Protest of the Proposed RMP
The BLM planning regulations state
that any person who participated in the
preparation of the RMP and has an
interest that will or may be adversely
affected by approval of the Proposed
RMP may protest its approval. Protest of
the Proposed RMP constitutes the final
opportunity for administrative review of
the proposed land use planning
decisions prior to the BLM adopting an
approved RMP. Instructions for filing a
protest with the BLM Director may be
found online at https://www.blm.gov/
programs/planning-and-nepa/publicparticipation/filing-a-plan-protest and
at 43 CFR 1610.5–2. All protests must be
in writing and mailed to the appropriate
address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section earlier or submitted
electronically through the BLM
ePlanning project website as described
previously. Protests submitted
electronically by any means other than
the ePlanning project website will be
invalid unless a protest is also
submitted as a hard copy. The BLM will
render a written decision on each
protest. The Director’s protest decision
shall be the final decision of the
Department of the Interior. Responses to
protest issues will be compiled and
documented in a Protest Resolution
Report made available following the
protest resolution online at: https://
www.blm.gov/programs/planning-andnepa/public-participation/protestresolution-reports. After resolution of
protests, the BLM will issue a Record of
Decision and Approved RMP.
Before including your address, phone
number, email address, or other
personal identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that
your entire comment—including your
personal identifying information—may
be made publicly available at any time.
While you can ask us in your comment
to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to
do so.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10,
43 CFR 1610.2)
Sonya I. Germann,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024–10793 Filed 5–16–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331–20–P
E:\FR\FM\17MYN1.SGM
17MYN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 97 (Friday, May 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43432-43433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10793]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[BLM_MT_FRN_MO4500178570]
Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan
Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the
Miles City Field Office, Montana
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
of 1976, as amended, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Final
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for public lands
managed by the Miles City Field Office and by this notice is announcing
the opportunity to protest the Proposed RMP Amendment.
DATES: The BLM Director will consider protests to the Proposed RMP
Amendment. Protests must be postmarked or electronically submitted on
the BLM's ePlanning site within 30 days after the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) publication of a Notice of Availability (NOA)
of the Proposed RMP Amendment and Final EIS in the Federal Register.
The EPA usually publishes NOAs on Fridays.
ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS are
available for review on the BLM ePlanning project website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021155/510. Documents pertinent
to this proposal may be examined online at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021155/510 and at the Miles City Field Office.
Instructions for filing a protest on the Proposed RMP Amendment can
be found at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All
protests must be submitted in writing and mailed to one of the
following by any one of the following methods:
Website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021155/510.
Regular and Overnight Mail: BLM Director, Attention:
Protest Coordinator (HQ210), Denver Federal Center, Building 40 (Door
W-4), Lakewood, CO 80215.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Irma Nansel, Project Manager,
telephone
[[Page 43433]]
(406) 233-3653; or at the address BLM Miles City Field Office, 111
Garryowen Road, Miles City, MT 59301; email [email protected].
Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of
hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or
TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals
outside the United States should use the relay services offered within
their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in
the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM prepared the Proposed Plan Amendment
and Final Supplemental EIS to address a United States District Court
for the District of Montana order (Western Organization of Resource
Councils, et al. v. BLM; CV 00076-GF-BMM; 8/3/2022). The Final
Supplemental EIS provides additional land use planning level analysis
that considers no-leasing and limited coal leasing alternatives;
discloses the public health impacts, both climate and non-climate, of
burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas); and completes new coal
screens in accordance with 43 CFR 3420.1-4 to determine the lands to be
made available for further consideration for coal leasing in the
planning area.
The Miles City planning area is located in Carter, Custer, Daniels,
Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, McCone, Powder River, Prairie, Richland,
Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Treasure, Wibaux, and portions of Big
Horn and Valley Counties, Montana, and encompasses approximately 2.7
million surface acres of BLM-managed public land and 11.7 million acres
of Federal coal mineral estate.
The BLM has analyzed four alternatives in detail, including the No
Action Alternative and three alternatives that vary the amount of BLM-
administered Federal coal available for further consideration for coal
leasing.
The No Action Alternative is the decision from the 2019 Approved
RMP Amendment, which identified approximately 1,214,380 acres of
Federal coal as available for further consideration for coal leasing
across the Miles City Field Office.
The action alternatives applied the coal screens (43 CFR 3420.1-
4(e)) using current data and evaluated the issues identified through
internal and public scoping. Application of coal screen 1 (development
potential) identified approximately 1,745,000 Federal coal acres as
having development potential. The action alternatives also address the
NEPA deficiencies identified by the court order associated with the
application of the multiple-use screen. Specifically, they apply a
multiple-use climate change criterion that uses greenhouse gas
emissions as a proxy for climate change. Reducing availability of
Federal lands for coal leasing reduces the contribution of greenhouse
gas emissions from the development and combustion of Federal coal from
the planning area.
Alternative B analyzes approximately 69,310 acres of Federal coal
as available for further consideration for coal leasing. Alternative C
analyzes approximately 810 acres of Federal coal as available for
further consideration for coal leasing, and Alternative D, the Proposed
RMP, analyzes 0 (zero) acres of Federal coal as available for further
consideration for coal leasing. The BLM revised the coal reasonably
foreseeable development scenario from the 2015 Miles City RMP using the
most current publicly available coal production data to forecast
development during the planning period, which runs to 2038. The revised
reasonably foreseeable development scenario was applied to all
alternatives.
The BLM further considered one additional alternative but dismissed
it from detailed analysis, as explained in the Final Supplemental EIS.
The BLM selected Alternative D as the proposed plan for allocating
BLM administered coal; under this alternative, no Federal coal would be
available for leasing within the Miles City Field Office planning area.
The proposed plan does not affect the area with coal development
potential or the area determined to be suitable for surface coal
mining. The BLM has determined that additional leasing of Federal coal
is not necessary based on the current analysis in the Final
Supplemental EIS. The analysis indicates that operating mines in the
planning area have existing leases with sufficient coal reserves to
maintain existing mine production levels until 2035 for Spring Creek
Mine and 2060 for Rosebud Mine.
The BLM published a notice of availability for the Draft
Supplemental EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in the Federal Register on
May 8, 2023 (88 FR 29689), which initiated a 90-day comment period. On
June 6th, the BLM hosted a public meeting at the BLM Miles City Field
Office in Miles City, Montana, to present the Draft Supplemental EIS
and RMP Amendment to the public and solicit comments. The BLM also
hosted an on-line public meeting on June 7, 2023. Eight members of the
public attended the online meeting. During the public comment period,
the BLM received 14 unique written submissions containing 167
substantive comments. The Draft Supplemental EIS comments helped the
BLM refine the Final Supplemental EIS and guided the development of the
Proposed RMP Amendment.
Protest of the Proposed RMP
The BLM planning regulations state that any person who participated
in the preparation of the RMP and has an interest that will or may be
adversely affected by approval of the Proposed RMP may protest its
approval. Protest of the Proposed RMP constitutes the final opportunity
for administrative review of the proposed land use planning decisions
prior to the BLM adopting an approved RMP. Instructions for filing a
protest with the BLM Director may be found online at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All protests must be in writing
and mailed to the appropriate address, as set forth in the ADDRESSES
section earlier or submitted electronically through the BLM ePlanning
project website as described previously. Protests submitted
electronically by any means other than the ePlanning project website
will be invalid unless a protest is also submitted as a hard copy. The
BLM will render a written decision on each protest. The Director's
protest decision shall be the final decision of the Department of the
Interior. Responses to protest issues will be compiled and documented
in a Protest Resolution Report made available following the protest
resolution online at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports. After resolution of
protests, the BLM will issue a Record of Decision and Approved RMP.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2)
Sonya I. Germann,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-10793 Filed 5-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-20-P
