CRE Files Comments on BOEM SEIS

On August 6, 2012, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed comments on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for its

Proposed Western Planning Area Lease Sale 233 and Central Planning Area Lease Sale 231. CRE’s comments made the following points, among others:

● Oil and gas seismic should not be a major issue in the SEIS.

● Recent assessments by BOEM and others show that seismic and other oil and gas G&G have not caused any harm in the Gulf of Mexico under current, long standing regulation.

● BOEM could not significantly change its current regulation of GOM seismic without new Information Collection Requests by BOEM and new Paperwork Reduction Act approvals by the Office of Management and Budget.

● Neither the SEIS nor any other document by any agency should use the Acoustic Integration Model until and unless external peer review states (i) that adequate behavioral effects data exist for AIM’s application in the Gulf of Mexico, and (ii) that AIM is otherwise sufficiently accurate and reliable for application in the Gulf.

● Passive Acoustic Monitoring should be required, and PAMGUARD should be encouraged.

Click here to read CRE’s comments