[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 219 (Tuesday, November 13, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67663-67664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-27405]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[LLWO320000 L13100000 PP0000 LXSIOSHL0000]


Notice of Availability of the Proposed Land Use Plan Amendments 
for Allocation of Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources on Lands 
Administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado, Utah, and 
Wyoming and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 
prepared the Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendments for 
Allocation of Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources on Lands Administered 
by the BLM in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Final Programmatic 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and by this notice is announcing 
their availability. Under the Proposed Plan, approximately 676,967 
acres would be open for application for future leasing and development 
of oil shale, and approximately 129,567 acres would be open for 
potential tar sands leasing and development.

DATES: BLM planning regulations state that any person who meets the 
conditions as described in the regulations may protest the BLM's 
Proposed RMP/Final EIS. A person who meets the conditions and files a 
protest must file the protest within 30 days of the date that the 
Environmental Protection Agency publishes its Notice of Availability 
(NOA) in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS have been sent to 
affected Federal, State, and local government agencies and to other 
stakeholders, including tribal governments. Copies of the Proposed RMP/
Final EIS are available for public inspection at the BLM office 
locations listed in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this 
notice.
    Interested persons may also review the Proposed RMP/Final EIS at 
the following Web site: http://ostseis.anl.gov. All protests must be in 
writing and mailed to one of the following addresses:

Regular Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Williams, P.O. Box 
71383, Washington, DC 20024-1383.
Overnight Mail: BLM Director (210), Attention: Brenda Williams, 20 M 
Street SE., Room 2134LM, Washington, DC 20003.

Publication of the NOA for the Proposed RMP/Final EIS does not trigger 
a formal comment period. The BLM, however, may choose to review any 
comments submitted following publication of the NOA and use them to 
inform the agency's Record of Decision (ROD). Those individuals wishing 
to submit comments are asked to do so through the Oil Shale and Tar 
Sands Programmatic EIS project Web site (http://ostseis.anl.gov). 
Individuals should note that the BLM will consider comments only to the 
extent practicable and will not respond to comments individually.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Sherri Thompson, BLM Oil Shale and 
Tar Sands Resources Programmatic EIS Project Manager, by telephone: 
303-239-3758; mail: BLM Colorado Office, 2850 Youngfield Street, 
Lakewood, Colorado 80215; or email: [email protected]. Persons who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 800-877-8339 to contact the above 
individual during normal business hours. The FIRS is available 24 hours 
a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message or question with the above 
individual. You will receive a reply during normal business hours.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Copies of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS are 
available for public inspection at the following BLM office locations:

Colorado State Office, 2850 Youngfield Street, Lakewood, Colorado 
80215.
Northwest District Office, 2815 H Road, Grand Junction, Colorado 81506.
Colorado River Valley Field Office, 2300 River Frontage Road, Silt, 
Colorado 81652.
White River Field Office, 220 East Market Street, Meeker, Colorado 
81641.
Utah State Office, 440 West 200 South, Suite 500, Salt Lake City, Utah 
84101.
Green River District Office, 170 South 500 East, Vernal Utah 84078.
Price Field Office, 125 South 600 West, Price, Utah 84501.
Color Country District Office, 176 East D.L. Sargent Drive, Cedar City, 
Utah 84721.
Richfield Field Office, 150 East 900 North, Richfield, Utah 84701.
Canyon Country District Office, 82 East Dogwood, Moab, Utah 84532.
Monticello Field Office, 365 North Main, Monticello, Utah 84535.
Wyoming State Office, 5353 Yellowstone Road, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009.
High Desert District Office, 280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, 
Wyoming 82901.
Kemmerer Field Office, 312 Highway 189 North, Kemmerer, Wyoming 83101.
Rawlins Field Office, 1300 North Third, Rawlins, Wyoming 82301.

    In September 2008, pursuant to Section 369 of the Energy Policy Act 
of 2005, FLPMA, and NEPA, the BLM issued a Proposed Plan Amendments/
Final Oil Shale and Tar Sands (OSTS) Programmatic EIS analyzing the 
environmental and socioeconomic impacts of amending 12 land use plans 
to designate public lands administered by the BLM as available for 
commercial leasing for oil shale or tar sands development. The planning 
area lies within the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah, and 
Wyoming. The November 17, 2008, ROD that followed this Programmatic EIS 
adopted the proposed land use amendments reflecting the allocation 
decisions analyzed in the 2008 OSTS Programmatic EIS. These land 
allocation

[[Page 67664]]

decisions, which are currently in effect, were challenged in a lawsuit 
brought by a coalition of environmental organizations in January 2009. 
As part of a settlement agreement entered into by the United States to 
resolve the lawsuit and in light of new information that has emerged 
since the 2008 OSTS Programmatic EIS was prepared, the BLM decided to 
take a fresh look at the land allocations analyzed in the 2008 OSTS 
Programmatic EIS. In this Proposed RMP/Final EIS (2012), the BLM 
proposes to amend 10 land use plans in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to 
describe those areas that will be open and those that will be closed to 
application for commercial leasing, exploration, and development of oil 
shale and tar sands resources.
    The BLM published its Notice of Intent to prepare a Programmatic 
EIS in the Federal Register on April 14, 2011 (76 FR 21003). The BLM 
conducted public scoping meetings in April and May of 2011, in Salt 
Lake City, Vernal, and Price, Utah; Rock Springs and Cheyenne, Wyoming; 
and Rifle and Denver, Colorado. Approximately 28,800 people 
participated in the scoping process by attending public meetings and/or 
submitting comments. The BLM published a scoping report in October 
2011, summarizing and categorizing issues, concerns, and comments, and 
considered them in developing the alternatives in this 2012 
Programmatic EIS.
    The study area analyzed in the Programmatic EIS for the oil shale 
resources includes the most geologically prospective resources of the 
Green River Formation located in the Green River, Piceance, Uinta, and 
Washakie Basins, encompassing approximately 3,540,000 acres on the 
basis of the grade and thickness of the oil shale deposits.
    For the tar sands resources, the study area analyzed in the 
Programmatic EIS includes those locations designated as Special Tar 
Sand Areas (STSAs) by Congress in the Combined Hydrocarbon Leasing Act 
of 1981 (Pub. L. 97-78). The tar sands study area covers about 
1,026,000 acres.
    The oil shale and tar sands resources within the study areas 
defined in the Programmatic EIS are located within the jurisdiction of 
12 separate BLM administrative units. These units are Glenwood Springs, 
Grand Junction, and White River Field Offices in Colorado; the Moab, 
Monticello, Price, Richfield, and Vernal Field Offices, and the Grand 
Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah; and the Kemmerer, 
Rawlins, and Rock Springs Field Offices in Wyoming.
    Within the above-listed administrative units and the defined 
boundaries of the most geologically prospective resources of the Green 
River formation and the designated STSAs, public lands managed by the 
BLM where the Federal government owns full fee title or just the 
subsurface mineral estate (split estate lands) are included in the 
scope of the Programmatic EIS analysis. Tribal lands on which both the 
surface estate and subsurface mineral estate are owned by the tribe are 
not included in the scope of analysis.
    The Environmental Protection Agency published a NOA of the Draft 
RMP Amendments/Programmatic EIS in the Federal Register on February 3, 
2012 (77 FR 5513), for a 90-day public review and comment period. The 
comment period closed on May 2, 2012. Open house meetings were held 
during March 2012 to provide additional information on the Draft 
Programmatic EIS. Comments on the Draft Programmatic EIS received from 
the public and cooperating agencies were considered and incorporated, 
as appropriate, into the proposed plan amendments. Of the more than 
161,000 comment letters received, about 600 contained substantive 
comments and approximately 160,400 appeared to be similar or identical 
to one another (i.e., form letters). Issues identified in the comments 
include air quality, climate change, water quality and quantity, socio-
economic concerns, wildlife concerns, and cultural resources concerns, 
as well as concerns related to the agency's compliance with FLPMA, NEPA 
and the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
    Comments on the Draft RMP Amendment/Draft Programmatic EIS received 
from the public, cooperating agencies, other Federal agencies, as well 
as internal BLM review were considered and information incorporated as 
appropriate into the Proposed RMP Amendments/Final EIS. As a result of 
public comments and upon further review, corrections/revisions were 
made to the Alternatives, and changes were made from what was presented 
as the Preferred Alternative in the Draft Programmatic EIS. These 
changes have resulted in a Proposed Plan Amendment (composed of 
Alternative 2(b) from the Draft Programmatic EIS, as well as certain 
elements of the other Alternatives) that references new acreage 
figures. The 2012 Proposed RMP/Final EIS addresses the allocation of 
BLM-administered lands as closed or open to the potential leasing and 
development of oil shale and tar sands resources, but will not affect 
other management decisions contained in the RMPs governing the areas to 
be included in the study area. Under the Proposed Plan, approximately 
676,967 acres would be open for application for future leasing and 
development of oil shale and approximately 129,567 acres would be open 
for potential tar sands leasing and development.
    Instructions for filing a protest with the Director of the BLM 
regarding the Proposed RMP/Final EIS may be found in the ``Dear 
Reader'' letter of the Proposed RMP/Final EIS and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. 
All protests must be in writing and mailed to the appropriate address, 
as set forth in the ADDRESSES section above. Emailed and faxed protests 
will not be accepted as valid protests unless the protesting party also 
provides the original letter by either regular or overnight mail 
postmarked by the close of the protest period.
    Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the emailed or faxed 
protest as an advance copy and it will receive full consideration. If 
you wish to provide the BLM with such advance notification, please 
direct emails to [email protected] and faxed protests to 
the attention of the BLM protest coordinator at 202-245-0028.
    Before including your phone number, email address, or other 
personal identifying information in your protest, you should be aware 
that your entire protest--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your protest to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.

    Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6 and 1506.10; and 43 CFR 1610.2 and 
1610.5.

Michael D. Nedd,
Assistant Director, Minerals and Realty Management.
[FR Doc. 2012-27405 Filed 11-9-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-84-P