The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its Notice of Intent to Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, and an Announcement of Scoping Meetings and Comment Period, for BOEM’s Proposed Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Western Planning Area Lease Sales 246 and 248. Public comments on these actions should be submitted to BOEM by May 5, 2014.
Click here to read BOEM’s Federal Register notice of these actions.
On March 17, 2014, The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service published notice of a proposed issuance of an Incidental Harassment Authorization to the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, to take marine mammals, by harassment incidental to conducting a marine geophysical (seismic) survey in the northwest Atlantic Ocean May through August, 2014. NMFS has extended the public comment period on this Atlantic seismic IHA from April 16, 2014, to May 16, 2014. This extension responds to a request by Clean Ocean Action for more time to comment.
Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this extension.
Editor’s Note: The complete paper, Oceana’s Opposition to Spanish Seismic Is Based on Bad Science, Bad Fact and Bad Policy is attached here. The Executive Summary of the paper [notes omitted] is reprinted below.
Oceana has published a Report and press release arguing that offshore seismic exploration for oil and gas should be banned between Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Some press has covered this Report and press release uncritically.
Oceana’s press release summarizes their Report:
In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued letters of authorization for the nonlethal take of polar bears and Pacific walrus incidental to oil and gas industry exploration, development, and production activities in the Beaufort Sea and the adjacent northern coast of Alaska and incidental to oil and gas industry exploration activities in the Chukchi Sea and the adjacent western coast of Alaska. These letters of authorization stipulate conditions and methods that minimize impacts to polar bears and Pacific walrus from these activities.
Click here to read Federal Register notice of these LOAs.
Oceana and other environmental groups sued BOEM and NMFS in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia over two oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. The enviros claimed that these GOM lease sales for various reasons violated NEPA and the Endangered Species Act. The court, in a 64-page opinion, rejected the envios’ claims and granted summary judgment motions filed by the Government and industry intervenors.
Click here to read court’s opinion.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has published its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Gulf of Mexico OCS oil and gas Lease Sales 238, 246, and 248, which are tentatively scheduled to be held in August 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, in the WPA offshore the States of Texas and Louisiana. This Final Supplemental EIS updates the baseline conditions and potential environmental effects of oil and natural gas leasing, exploration, development, and production in the WPA . Click here to read this DSEIS.
BOEM has a new draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Gulf of Mexico, Central Planning Area Lease Sales 235, 241, and 247. The Comment period on this DSEIS ends May 5, 2014. Representative statements from this DSEIS include:
“Marine Mammals: Routine events related to a CPA proposed action are not expected to have adverse effects on the size and productivity of any marine mammal species or population in the northern Gulf of Mexico.”
BOEM says in this DSEIS that most oil and gas noise is at frequencies too low to bother GOM marine mammals:
The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization to the National Science Foundation, Division of Polar Programs, and Antarctic Support Contract on behalf of five research institutions: Colgate University, Columbia University, Texas A&M Research Foundation, University of South Florida, and University of Texas at Austin. This IHA is issued under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and it authorizes these institutions to take marine mammals, by Level B harassment only, incidental to conducting a low-energy marine geophysical (seismic) survey in the Dumont d’Urville Sea off the coast of East Antarctica, January to March 2014.
CRE’s comments on NOAA/NMFS’ draft Acoustic Guidance included the following Executive Summary:
“There is no physical harm from oil and gas seismic as currently and historically regulated by NOAA/NMFS and by other U.S. Government agencies. With regard to PTS and TTS, NOAA/NMFS have correctly explained:
‘Researchers have studied TTS in certain captive odontocetes and pinnipeds exposed to strong sounds (reviewed in Southall et al., 2007). However, there has been no specific documentation of TTS let alone permanent hearing damage, i.e.,permanent threshold shift (PTS), in free-ranging marine mammals exposed to sequences of airgun pulses during realistic field conditions.’[1]
The United States National Marine Fisheries Service has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to Apache Alaska Corporation to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to a proposed 3D seismic survey in Cook Inlet, Alaska, between March 4, 2014, and December 31, 2014. This IHA is effective March 4, 2014, through December 31, 2014. In its Federal Register notice of this IHA, NMFS responds to comments on the proposed IHA that criticize NMFS’ methods for determining MMPA Level Behavioral Takes. In its response, NMFS states that
