Department of the Interior February 20, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce that our final comprehensive conservation plan and environmental impact statement (CCP/EIS) for the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) is available. In the final CCP/EIS, we describe how we propose to manage the Refuge for 15 years.

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are issuing this final rule to comply with court orders that reinstate the regulatory protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), for the gray wolf (Canis lupus) in Wyoming and the western Great Lakes. Pursuant to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia court order dated September 23, 2014, this rule reinstates the April 2, 2009 (74 FR 15123), final rule regulating the gray wolf in the State of Wyoming as a nonessential experimental population. Gray wolves in Montana, Idaho, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and north-central Utah retain their delisted status and are not impacted by this final rule. In addition, pursuant to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia court order dated December 19, 2014, this rule reinstates the March 9, 1978 (43 FR 9607), final rule as it relates to gray wolves in the western Great Lakes including endangered status for gray wolves in all of Wisconsin and Michigan, the eastern half of North Dakota and South Dakota, the northern half of Iowa, the northern portions of Illinois and Indiana, and the northwestern portion of Ohio; threatened status for gray wolves in Minnesota; critical habitat for gray wolves in Minnesota and Michigan; and the rule promulgated under section 4(d) of the ESA for gray wolves in Minnesota.

BOEM is announcing the availability of a Final Second Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Chukchi Sea Planning Area, Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Lease Sale 193 (Lease Sale 193). The Final Second SEIS (OCS EIS/EA BOEM 2014-669) provides new analysis in accordance with the United States District Court for the District of Alaska (District Court) Order remanding Lease Sale 193 to BOEM. The District Court's order instructs BOEM to address the deficiency in the 2007 Final EIS (OCS EIS/EA MMS 2007-026) identified by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit). The Ninth Circuit held that the EIS supporting the decision to hold Lease Sale 193 arbitrarily relied on a one billion barrel oil production estimate. The Final Second SEIS provides a revised exploration and development scenario and an accompanying analysis of potential impacts of the proposed action alternatives. The Final Second SEIS identifies Alternative IV (Corridor II Deferral) as BOEM's preferred alternative.