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National Oil and Gas Program and NEPA

National Oil and Gas Program and NEPA. Jill Lewandowski, Ph.D. Office of Environmental Programs. November 13, 2018. National Program Development Process. Draft Proposed Program and NOI published on January 8, 2018

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National Oil and Gas Program and NEPA

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  1. National Oil and Gas Program and NEPA Jill Lewandowski, Ph.D. Office of Environmental Programs November 13, 2018

  2. National Program Development Process • Draft Proposed Program and NOI published on January 8, 2018 • 47 sales in 25 Planning Areas, as well as direction to analyze “subarea options” • Next step is publication of the Proposed Program and Draft Programmatic EIS- date TBD • Documents will analyze DPP and subareas • EIS will also analyze additional potential exclusion areas nominated by the public, BOEM SMEs, Federal agencies, state and local governments, and tribes and tribal organizations • Then Proposed Final Program and Final EIS- expected @ one year from PP and Draft EIS publication

  3. DPP Decision (47 sales in 25 Planning Areas)

  4. DPP Decision (47 sales in 25 Planning Areas)

  5. DPP Subarea Options (Exclusions)

  6. Draft Programmatic EIS STREAMLINING NEPA • Last PEIS was >900 pages with a substantially smaller geographic scope • Recent executive and Secretarial directives limit the document to no more than 300 pages • Analyzing 25 planning areas in ⅓ of the pages required a strategic, focused approach

  7. Approach to Draft PEIS • Ecoregion concept (also compares across regions) • Binary significance determinations (potentially significant or not expected to be significant) • Focus only on issues that may be potentially significant • Incorporated other analyses by reference • Focus on visuals • Cumulative effects • Exclusions analysis

  8. BOEM Ecoregions

  9. Approach to Draft PEIS Explains the nature of impacts NATIONAL IMPACTS: Marine mammals can be affected by noise because… Explains the context orspeciesthat are impacted REGIONAL IMPACTS: Marine mammals in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas Ecoregion, such as bowhead or beluga whales, may be affected by noise in unique ways because…

  10. Focus on Graphics

  11. Exclusions Exclusion nominations were evaluated and those that met the criteria were analyzed in the Draft Programmatic EIS. This includes all of the “subarea options” included in the DPP decision. Analysis of exclusions includes consideration of: Available information about the ecological or sociocultural value of the area Impacts that could be reduced or avoided if area was excluded

  12. Chukchi Sea Exclusions *Note that only areas within the grid cells were included in the analysis. Best available science used to support exclusions analysis. BOEM scientist Tim White analyzed ASAMM from 2000­-2016­­ to identify areas of persistence through time (“hotspots”) in the Arctic. This maps shows the DPP subarea options as well as a larger area around Hanna Shoal that was analyzed in the Draft Programmatic EIS. These data show that high densities of walrus use a large area in the vicinity of Hanna Shoal consistently year-to-year.

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