The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for proposed Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Oil and Gas WPA Lease Sale 248. The Final SEIS discusses the potential significant impacts of the proposed action, provides an analysis of reasonable alternatives to the proposed action, and identifies BOEM’s preferred alternative.
Click here for this Federal Register publication.
The first is the NEPA Record of Decision for proposed oil and gas EPA Lease Sale 226. This Record of Decision identifies the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s selected alternative for proposed EPA Lease Sale 226, which is analyzed in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales: 2016 and 2017; Central Planning Area Lease Sales 241 and 247; Eastern Planning Area Lease Sale 226; Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (CPA 241/EPA 226 Supplemental EIS).
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service proposes to issue ExxonMobil Alaska LNG LLC an Incidental Harassment Authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to a geophysical and geotechnical survey in Cook Inlet, Alaska. This action is proposed to occur for 16 weeks. NMFS proposes to issue this IHA pursuant to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.
NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to EMALL to incidentally take, by Level B Harassment only, marine mammals during the specified activity. Comments and information must be received no later than March 7, 2016.
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2017 (FY 2017) budget includes a request of $175.1 million to fund the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s mission to manage offshore energy and mineral resources. The request would provide BOEM with resources to manage oil and gas development, renewable energy, and mineral resources on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
The President’s FY17 budget request for the bureau focuses on core program responsibilities, such as the Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program, oil and gas exploration and development plans, offshore renewable energy and environmental analysis and studies. The request includes an increase of $4.1 million over the FY 2016 enacted level.
Click here to read more about this budget proposal.
President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget request for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) provides resources for BSEE’s regulatory and oversight capabilities for oil, natural gas and renewable energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
The FY 2017 budget request is $204.87 million, a $196,000 increase above the FY 2016 enacted level, and includes $96.34 million in current appropriations and $108.53 million in revenue from rental receipts, cost recoveries, and inspection fees.
The request includes $190 million for offshore safety and environmental enforcement programs. BSEE is also working collaboratively with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to establish appropriate permitting and oversight processes for offshore renewable energy projects.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to the U.S. Air Force, Eglin Air Force Base, to take two species of marine mammals, the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), by harassment, incidental to a Maritime Weapon Systems Evaluation Program within the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range in the Gulf of Mexico from February 4, 2016 through February 3, 2017. NMFS has issued this IHA under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) <http://www.dosits.org> Team is facilitating a free, five-part webinar series for the international regulatory community on
topics related to underwater sound.
Two webinars took place in 2015. The first reviewed science of sound concepts, the second, sound production and reception in marine animals. Both of these webinars have been archived to the DOSITS website (http://www.dosits.org/resources/all/decisionmakers/ircwebinar/)
and are available for review. PDFs of webinar presentations, as well as full webinar summaries, with associated DOSITS links, are also available for download. You do not need to register to view archived webinars and their associated materials.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service has published its Peer Review Report: Technical Section from: NOAA Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Marine Mammal Hearing: Underwater Acoustic Threshold Levels for Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shift.
The Peer reviewers are Robert Burkard, Ph.D., University at Buffalo; Peter Dahl, Ph.D., Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington; Colleen Reichmuth, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz; and Kevin Williams, Ph.D., Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington.
On January 27, 2016, CRE filed petitions with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. CRE’s petitions asked NMFS and BOEM to comply with Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 during their development of Gulf of Mexico marine mammal Take Rules for oil and gas seismic, and during their development of Long Term Monitoring Plans as part of those Take Rules. Compliance with these Executive Orders requires supporting the Take Rules and their LTMP with a cost benefit analysis. Compliance also requires OMB review of both the draft and final cost benefit analysis, and of the rest of the draft and final Take Rules including the LTMP.
