[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 205 (Thursday, October 23, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63437-63438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-25255]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

[Docket No. BOEM-2014-0001; MMAA104000]


Outer Continental Shelf, Alaska Region, Cook Inlet Program Area, 
Proposed Oil and Gas Lease Sale 244

AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement 
and hold public scoping meetings.

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SUMMARY: Consistent with the regulations implementing the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 
(BOEM) is announcing its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact 
Statement (EIS) for proposed Lease Sale 244 in the Cook Inlet Program 
Area. The EIS will focus on the potential effects of leasing, 
exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas in the 
proposed lease sale area. In addition to the no-action alternative 
(i.e., not holding the lease sale), other alternatives may be 
considered, such as deferring additional areas within the Cook Inlet 
proposed lease sale area.

DATES: Comments should be submitted by December 8, 2014 through http://www.regulations.gov/.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the Lease Sale 244 
EIS, the submission of comments, or BOEM's policies associated with 
this notice, please contact Michael Rolland, Regional Supervisor, BOEM, 
Alaska OCS Region, 3801 Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500, Anchorage, AK 
99503, telephone (907) 334-5271.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August 27, 2012, the Secretary of the 
Interior approved the June 2012 Proposed Final Outer Continental Shelf 
Oil & Gas Leasing Program 2012-2017 (Five Year Program). The Five Year 
Program includes proposed Lease Sale 244.
    There are currently no Federal leases in the Cook Inlet Planning 
Area. The proposed Lease Sale 244 leasing area is located offshore of 
the State of Alaska in the northern portion of the Federal waters of 
Cook Inlet and consists of 224 lease blocks and covers roughly 437,613 
hectares (approximately 1.07 million acres of the total Cook Inlet 
Planning Area of 5.3 million acres). The lease sale area was identified 
in the November 27, 2013, Area Identification (Area ID) available at 
www.boem.gov/Sale-244/. While including most of the areas identified by 
industry in their responses to the March 27, 2012, Request for 
Interest, the proposed lease sale area in the Area ID also:
     Excludes the majority of the designated critical habitat 
areas for beluga whale and northern sea otter, and excludes the 
critical habitat areas for Steller sea lions and the North Pacific 
right whale;
     reduces potential effects to parks, preserves, and 
wildlife refuges by placing a buffer between the area considered for 
leasing and the Katmai National Park and Preserve, the Kodiak National 
Wildlife Refuge, and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge; and
     excludes many of the subsistence use areas for the Native 
Villages of Nanwalek and Port Graham identified during the Cook Inlet 
Lease Sale 191 process.
    This notice of intent is not an announcement to hold a proposed 
lease sale, but is a continuation of the information gathering process 
and is published early in the environmental review process in 
furtherance of the goals of NEPA. The comments received during scoping 
will help inform the content of the Lease Sale 244 EIS. If, after 
completion of the EIS, the Department of the Interior's Assistant 
Secretary for Land and Minerals Management chooses to hold the proposed 
lease sale, that decision and the details related to the lease sale 
(including, the lease sale area and any mitigation) will be announced 
in a Record of Decision and Final Notice of Sale.
    Scoping Process: This notice of intent also serves to announce the 
scoping process for identifying key issues for the Lease Sale 244 EIS. 
Throughout the scoping process, Federal, State, Tribal and local 
governments and the general public have the opportunity to provide 
input to BOEM in determining significant resources, issues, impacting 
factors, reasonable alternatives, and potential mitigation measures to 
be analyzed in the Lease Sale 244 EIS. BOEM will evaluate additional 
alternatives, deferral and/or mitigation suggestions identified during 
scoping meetings and the comment period initiated by this notice of 
intent in the preparation of the EIS.
    BOEM will use the NEPA process to satisfy the public comment 
requirements of section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act 
(16 U.S.C. 470f), as provided for in 36 CFR 800.2(d)(3).
    Scoping Meetings: Pursuant to the regulations implementing the 
procedural provisions of NEPA, BOEM will hold public scoping meetings. 
The purpose of these meetings is to solicit

[[Page 63438]]

comments on the scope of the Lease Sale 244 EIS. These meetings are 
scheduled as follows:
     November 12, 2014, Tribal Conference Center, Seldovia, 
Alaska;
     November 13, 2014, Tribal Community Center, Nanwalek, 
Alaska;
     November 13, 2014, Best Western Bidarka Inn, 575 Sterling 
Highway, Homer, Alaska;
     November 14, 2014, Kenai Peninsula College, 156 College 
Road, Soldotna, Alaska; and
     November 24, 2014, Loussac Library Complex, 3600 Denali 
Street, Anchorage, Alaska.
    All meetings will start at 7:00 p.m. (except Nanwalek, which will 
begin at 12:00 p.m.).
    Written Comments: All interested parties, including Federal, State, 
Tribal, and local governments, and the general public, may submit 
written comments on the scope of the Lease Sale 244 EIS, significant 
issues that should be addressed, alternatives that should be 
considered, potential mitigation measures, and the types of oil and gas 
activities of interest in the proposed Lease Sale 244 area.
    Scoping comments may be made through the regulations.gov web 
portal: Navigate to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket 
BOEM-2014-0001, or ``Oil and Gas Lease Sales: Alaska Outer Continental 
Shelf; Cook Inlet Program Area Lease Sale 244''. Click on the ``Comment 
Now!'' button to the right of the document link. Enter your information 
and comment, and then click ``Submit.''
    Before including your address, phone number, email address, or 
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be 
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying 
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can 
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying 
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be 
able to do so.
    Cooperating Agency: BOEM invites qualified government entities, 
such as other Federal Agencies, State, Tribal, and local governments, 
to consider becoming cooperating agencies for the preparation of Lease 
Sale 244 EIS. Following the guidelines at 40 CFR 1501.6 and 1508.5 from 
the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), qualified agencies and 
governments are those with ``jurisdiction by law or special 
expertise.'' Potential cooperating agencies should consider their 
authority and capacity to assume the responsibilities of a cooperating 
agency and remember that an agency's role in the environmental analysis 
neither enlarges nor diminishes the final decision-making authority of 
any other agency involved in the NEPA process. Upon request, BOEM will 
provide potential cooperating agencies with a written summary of 
guidelines for cooperating agencies, including time schedules and 
critical action dates, milestones, responsibilities, scope and detail 
of cooperating agencies' contributions, and availability of pre-
decisional information. BOEM anticipates this summary will form the 
basis for a Memorandum of Understanding between BOEM and any 
cooperating agency. BOEM, as the lead agency, will not provide 
financial assistance to cooperating agencies. In addition to becoming a 
cooperating agency, other opportunities will exist to provide 
information and comments to BOEM during the public comment period for 
the EIS. For additional information about cooperating agencies, please 
contact Michael Rolland, Regional Supervisor, BOEM, at telephone (907) 
334-5271.

    Authority: This notice of intent is published pursuant to the 
regulation at 40 CFR 1501.7 implementing the provisions of NEPA.

Walter D. Cruickshank,
Acting Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2014-25255 Filed 10-22-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P