Questions and Answers: Current Five-Year Program (2007-2012)

Q1: What was included in this new environmental sensitivity analysis that responded to the Court of Appeals decision?

In addition to shoreline/coastal resources, the new analysis includes consideration of the sensitivity of offshore/marine resources, divided into three components of the different areas of the OCS that may be affected by oil and gas activities: marine habitats, marine productivity, and marine fauna (i.e., birds, fish, marine mammals and sea turtles). The expanded analysis considers the sensitivity to oil spills and other factors, such as sound and physical disturbance, and increased sensitivity due to climate change and ocean acidification. The revised environmental sensitivity analysis relies on almost 50 reports, studies, and datasets, more than half of which were not available when the original 2007-2012 relative environmental sensitivity analysis was prepared.

Q2: What factors did Secretary Salazar consider when making decisions on the current 5-Year Program (2007-20112)?

Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. section 1344) requires the Secretary of the Interior to prepare and maintain a schedule of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing, and location of leasing activities over a 5-year period. The Final Environmental Impact Statement and section 18 analyses required by the OCSLA provide most of the information for the Secretary to consider in making his decisions.

The new information developed in response to the Court remand as well as existing information and analysis provided the basis for Secretary Salazar to make the necessary decisions on timing and location on the remanded program in order to obtain the proper balance, to the maximum extent practicable, between the potential for environmental damage, the potential for the discovery of oil and gas, and the potential for adverse impact on the coastal zone. The Secretary used the expanded environmental sensitivity analysis, the information and analysis on the other section 18 factors that were unchanged, the Final EIS, and any other information contained in the administrative record to exercise his own judgment to reach his decisions on the options and balance necessary under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Q3: What did Secretary Salazar decide using this new and existing information?

The Secretary recognizes the crucial role that OCS oil and gas production plays in reducing the Nation's dependence on foreign imports. For that reason, his Preliminary Revised Program reaffirms the role of the Gulf of Mexico as the primary producing region, retaining the eight sales that have already occurred and the four remaining on the schedule.

However, he also appreciates the fact that the Gulf of Mexico cannot carry the program alone, this Preliminary Revised Program includes Mid-Atlantic Sale 220 offshore Virginia, the only newly available area in this program. The MMS estimates the area conservatively could contain 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The schedule also retains the two special interest sales in the Cook Inlet offshore Alaska. However, for lack of industry interest, Sale 211, scheduled for 2009, was cancelled. A request for information will be issued in the near future to solicit indications of interest to determine whether to move forward with Sale 219.

The Secretary also decided that Chukchi Sea Sale 193 held in 2008 is appropriate as part of this Preliminary Revised Program. Results from exploration on existing leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, ongoing research on oil spill clean-up in icy waters, and more awareness of the effects of climate change will provide valuable information for making future decisions on offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic.

In exercising his own consideration of the entire record, the Secretary determined that it is an appropriate balance to remove two areas from the 2007-2012 program. The remanded program schedules no sales in the North Aleutian Basin and Beaufort Sea, Alaska; nor will there be any additional sales in the Chukchi Sea other than Sale 193. The North Aleutian Basin planning area, which contains Bristol Bay, is home to a vast diversity of fisheries and is adjacent to more national monuments and protected areas than any other Alaskan area under consideration. Thus, the Secretary determined that the potential risks, particularly to the commercial fishing industry, outweighed the potential for discovery of oil and gas.

In the case of the Beaufort Sea (and the Chukchi Sea other than lease sale 193 held in 2008), the Secretary intends to proceed cautiously and time sales in Arctic areas to allow results of postlease exploration activities to be available for future planning in the next 5-year cycle. Due to litigation, leases issued in Beaufort Sea Sale 202, held in April 2007, have yet to be explored, as is the case for Chukchi Sea Sale 193 leases. Also his decision reflects the potential difficulty of removing oil spilled in icy waters, limited infrastructure available to respond to spills, and environmental considerations such as climate change. There is research underway that along with new information will provide the opportunity to make more informed decisions regarding Arctic sales in the next 5-year program.

Q4: Were other areas were considered for inclusion in the revised program?

Under section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, areas may not be added to a program once they have been excluded. For that reason, only the areas included in the 2007-2012 program as approved on June 29, 2007, could be considered in the balancing decision for the revised program. The Department is preparing a new 5-year program that does consider other areas of the OCS. Today the Secretary has announced that public meetings will be held in communities near eight planning areas, two of which are not in the current program, to gather information to “scope” for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. While scoping in an area or inclusion in an EIS does not mean that an area will be considered for leasing at any of the remaining steps in the 5-year preparation process, an area must be analyzed in the EIS to be considered.

Q5: Does removing the remaining Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea lease sales from the current 5-year schedule hinder development of needed energy resources in those areas?

No. Very successful lease sales in both areas in the last six years established hundreds of existing leases covering millions of acres. The Secretary's stated goal for these areas is to proceed in an orderly, scientifically grounded manner, waiting until industry can begin to explore this already leased acreage and then use the results of exploration, along with information from current and planned scientific studies, to help him determine the extent to which additional lease sales in these areas are both needed and appropriate in the next 5-year program.

Q6: What did MMS do to meet the remand mandate of the Court?

MMS produced a Preliminary Revised Program document intended to meet the remand mandate of the U.S. Court of Appeals concerning the OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2007-2012. This document includes the expanded environmental sensitivity analysis and the other information and analysis required by section 18 of the OCSLA that are unchanged from the Proposed Final Program dated April 2007 and approved June 29, 2007. The unchanged information and analysis, including the Final Environmental Impact Statement, were either unchallenged or upheld by the Court. This revised analysis was incorporated into the rebalancing process presented in the Preliminary Revised Program for 2007-2012.

Q7: What are the next steps now?

Interior's Minerals Management Service has prepared the Preliminary Revised Program. Concurrently with this announcement, MMS will advise the Court of the Preliminary Revised Program, submit it to the President and Congress, and announce a 30-day public comment period in the Federal Register, in keeping with the commitments in the Government's petition to the Court on May 11, 2009. After consideration of any comments received, the Secretary plans to take another look at his Preliminary Revised Program decisions and thereafter approve a final leasing program for 2007-2012.

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