The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has a Record of Decision for proposed Gulf of Mexico regionwide oil and gas Lease Sale 252. This Record of Decision identifies BOEM’s selected alternative for proposed Lease Sale 252, which is analyzed in the Gulf of Mexico OCS Lease Sale: Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement 2018.
Click here for more information and relevant links.
The Record of Decision is available on BOEM’s website at http://www.boem.gov/nepaprocess/
Physic.Org posted the above-titled article, which reads in part as follow:
“A recent paper on the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in northern Europe (“Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot”) reveals that industrial-scale fishing – primarily the use of bottom-trawl fishing – is widespread in so-called protected areas that were established specifically to safeguard highly biodiverse marine and coastal habitats across the North Sea. We welcome this important and timely piece of research. Unfortunately, a number of the press reports that covered this paper’s findings included sensationalist – and misleading – headlines that are potentially very damaging to the cause of marine conservation.”
This International Research Conference will meet in Rome on March 5-6, 2019.
Its website states that:
“The International Research Conference is a federated organization dedicated to bringing together a significant number of diverse scholarly events for presentation within the conference program. Events will run over a span of time during the conference depending on the number and length of the presentations.
On February 8, 2019, the judge in the South Carolina Atlantic IHA litigation ordered the Federal Defendants to respond to the plaintiffs’ complaint by April 5, 2019. This deadline may be further extended because the plaintiffs have said they may file an amended complaint.
The Center for Regulatory effectiveness filed comments on the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s Notice of Intent to perform an Environmental Impact Statement for BOEM’s Proposed 2019 Beaufort Sea Oil and Gas Lease Sale.
CRE’s comments (footnotes omitted) include the following Executive Summary:
“BOEM seeks comments on the scoping of an EIS that ‘will focus on the potential effects of leasing, exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas in the’ Beaufort Sea Program Area.1
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from the U.S. Air Force for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to launching space launch vehicles, intercontinental ballistic and small missiles, and aircraft and helicopter operations at Vandenberg Air Force Base from March 2019 to March 2024. As required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS is proposing regulations to govern that take, and requests comments on the proposed regulations. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested incidental take regulations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of NMFS’ decision.
The International Association of Geophysical Contractors posted the above titled article on the IAGC website. This article begins as follows:
“A liberal judge just blocked one of President Trump’s most important reforms — one designed to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and keep our pump prices low.
Soon after taking office, President Trump opened America’s offshore territories to oil and gas exploration. And despite the current shutdown, the Interior Department has continued to issue permits for seismic surveying, the first step in locating those deep-sea energy reserves.
The above-titled article was written by J. Winston Porter and posted on Energy. It reads as follows:
“There is no credible way to address offshore drilling in the Atlantic without conducting seismic tests to see how much oil and natural gas lie beneath the Outer Continental Shelf. That is why the National Marine Fisheries Service has approved a plan to map the ocean floor off the coast, from Delaware to Florida.
ABC News Australia posted the above-titled article, which reads in part as follows article:
“Oil and gas testing is set to take place in the Great Australian Bight this year, after the national petroleum regulator granted permission to exploration company PGS.
Environmental groups have slammed the decision to allow seismic testing near Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln, while the tuna industry has questioned whether it is even likely to go ahead.
Seismic testing involves firing sound waves into the ocean floor to detect the presence of oil or gas reserves.
On December 11, 2018, several environmental and conservation groups filed a complaint against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and Wilber Ross, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is NMFS’ parent agency. This complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. It challenges five Incidental Harassment Authorizations for oil and gas seismic and other exploratory operations in the Atlantic Ocean. NMFS recently issued these IHAs under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (“MMPA”). The plaintiffs allege that NMFS violated the MMPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act when NMFS issued these permits.
