Bureau of Ocean Energy Management July 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

BOEM announces the availability of the Proposed Final Five Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017 (PFP). This is the third and last proposal that is part of the multi-step process required by law before the Secretary of the Interior may approve a new Five Year Program. BOEM is publishing a Notice of Availability of the Five Year Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement concurrently with this notice. Pursuant to section 18 of the OCS Lands Act, this PFP was submitted to the President and Congress. After a period of at least 60 days from the date it was submitted to the President and Congress, the Secretary may approve the program, at which time it will become effective.

Pursuant to the regulations implementing the procedural provisions of NEPA, BOEM is announcing its intent to prepare a Supplemental EIS for proposed Western Planning Area (WPA) Lease Sale 233 and Central Planning Area (CPA) Lease Sale 231 (WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS). The proposed lease sales are in the Gulf of Mexico's WPA off the States of Texas and Louisiana and in the CPA off the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS will update the environmental and socioeconomic analyses in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales: 2012-2017; WPA Lease Sales 229, 233, 238, 246, and 248; CPA Lease Sales 227, 231, 235, 241, and 247, Final Environmental Impact Statement (OCS EIS/EA BOEM 2012-019) (WPA/ CPA Multisale Final EIS). The WPA/CPA Multisale Final EIS was completed in July 2012. A Supplemental EIS is deemed appropriate to supplement the WPA/CPA Multisale Final EIS for these lease sales in order to consider new circumstances and information arising, among other things, from the Deepwater Horizon event. The WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS analysis will focus on updating the baseline conditions and potential environmental effects of oil and natural gas leasing, exploration, development, and production in the WPA and CPA. The WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS will also analyze the 1.4 nautical mile (nmi) buffer area in the Western Gap, which was excluded from the WPA/CPA Multisale EIS but which may be available in the proposed lease sale or subsequent sale. The WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS will assist decisionmakers in making informed decisions regarding the approval of operations, as well as leasing. The WPA/CPA Supplemental EIS analysis will focus on the potential environmental effects of oil and natural gas leasing, exploration, development, and production in the areas identified as the proposed lease sale areas. In addition to the no action alternative (i.e., canceling the proposed sales), other alternatives may be considered for each proposed lease sale, such as deferring certain areas from the proposed lease sales.