A federal court entered an order settling two cases challenging the U.S. Navy’s training and testing activities off the coasts of Southern California and Hawai‘i, securing protections for whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals by limiting Navy activities in vital habitat. The settlement stems from the court’s earlier finding that NMFS’s authorization of certain Navy activities involving sonar and explosives violated the marine mammal protection and Endangered Species Act.
On September 14, 2015, the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness filed comments on the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service’s “Draft Guidance for Assessing the Effects of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammal Hearing—Acoustic Threshold Levels for Onset of Permanent and Temporary Threshold Shifts.” CRE’s comments included the following Executive Summary:
“CRE commends NMFS for emphasizing the need to comply with Information Quality Act (“IQA”) Guidelines, and for requiring multiple peer reviews of the Draft Guidance.
“NMFS needs to clearly state whether use of the Draft Guidance is mandatory during regulation of offshore oil and gas seismic. If use is mandatory then the Draft Guidance is a rule and should be treated as such.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Central Planning Area Lease Sales 241 and 247 and Eastern Planning Area Lease Sale 226. The Final Supplemental EIS provides a discussion of potential significant impacts of the proposed actions, provides an analysis of reasonable alternatives to the proposed actions, and identifies the Bureau’s preferred alternatives. This Final Supplemental EIS updates the environmental and socioeconomic analyses for proposed CPA and EPA sales evaluated in the following EISs:
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its Draft SupplementalEnvironmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas Western Planning Area (WPA) Lease Sale 248 (WPA Sale 248). WPA Sale 248 is tentatively scheduled for August 2016. The Draft Supplemental EIS provides a discussion of the potential significant impacts of the proposed action and an analysis of reasonable alternatives to the proposed action; it considers new information made available since completion of earlier EISs related to WPA Sale 248. The prior EISs supplemented by the Draft Supplemental EIS are available at: http://www.boem.gov/nepaprocess/ .
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, for an Incidental Harassment Authorization to take marine mammals, by harassment only, incidental to conducting a marine geophysical survey in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, mid-November through December, 2015. The proposed dates for this action would be mid-November 2015 through December 31, 2015, to account for minor deviations due to logistics and weather.
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has submitted to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) an information collection request (ICR) to renew approval of the paperwork requirements in BSEE’s offshore oil and gas regulations under subpart B, Plans and Information. BSEE submitted this ICR to OMB pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act.
This ICR covers the following BSEE rules: § 250.282—Post-Approval Requirements for the EP, DPP, and DOCD: and §§ 250.286–295—Deepwater Operations Plan (DWOP).
Any comments must be received OMB no lager than October 2, 2015.
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has issued the following press release:
“WASHINGTON — After extensive review and under a robust array of safety requirements, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Brian Salerno today announced that Shell has received approval of one Application for Permit to Modify (APM) to conduct exploratory drilling activities into potential oil-bearing zones offshore Alaska at one of the wells at the Burger Prospect, Burger J. The company remains limited to the top section of the Burger V well.
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to ExxonMobil Alaska LNG LLC. This IHA authorizes the take of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to a geophysical and geotechnical survey in Cook Inlet, AK, for 84 days between August 14, 2015 and August 13, 2016. This IHA is effective August 14, 2015, through August 13, 2016.
NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this IHA includes the following public comment and NMFS’ response to it:
“Comment 1: One private citizen requested that we deny issuance of the IHA because marine mammals would be killed as a result of the survey.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management BOEM has announced its intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for proposed Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Central Planning Area (CPA) Oil and Gas Lease Sale 247 (CPA 247 Supplemental EIS).
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has sent out the following invitation to register at the International Regulator’s Forum Conference:
“2015 International Regulator’s Forum Conference Registration Now Open
08/14/2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) will host the 2015 International Regulators’ Forum (IRF) Offshore Safety Conference: “Risk Reduction: From Desktop to Deck Plate,” on October 19-20, at the Liaison Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Registration for the event is now open HERE.
