[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 10 (Friday, January 15, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4117-4118]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-00781]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

[Docket No. BOEM-2020-0018]


Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 
258

AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of a draft environmental impact 
statement.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announces the 
availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) 
for the proposed Cook Inlet Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas 
Lease Sale 258. This notice marks the start of the public review and 
comment period and serves to announce public hearings on the Draft EIS. 
After the public hearings and written comments on the Draft EIS have 
been reviewed and considered, a Final EIS will be prepared. The Draft 
EIS and associated information, including the Exploration, Development 
and Production, and Decommissioning Scenario (E&D Scenario) are 
available for review on the agency's website at https://www.boem.gov/ak258.

DATES: Comments are due by March 1, 2021.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amee Howard, project manager, at 
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Alaska Regional Office, 3801 
Centerpoint Drive, Suite 500, Anchorage, Alaska 99503-5823, or at 
telephone number (907) 334-5200.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On January 17, 2017, the Secretary of the 
Interior approved the ``Proposed Final 2017-2022 Outer Continental 
Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program'' (National Program). The National 
Program includes proposed Lease Sale 258.
    Cook Inlet stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-
central Alaska. The proposed lease sale would offer for lease all 
available OCS blocks in the northern portion of the Cook Inlet Planning 
Area. The proposed lease sale area comprises 224 OCS blocks, which 
covers an area of approximately 1.09 million acres.
    On September 10, 2020, BOEM published in the Federal Register the 
notice of intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS in support of Lease Sale 258. 
Publication of the NOI opened a public comment period that extended 
through October 13, 2020. In September 2020, BOEM held a series of 
public scoping meetings for the EIS. The comments received during the 
public scoping period were used to inform the scope and content of this 
Draft EIS.
    Proposed action: The proposed action addressed in the Draft EIS is 
to conduct an oil and gas lease sale on portions of the Cook Inlet OCS 
Planning Area. Proposed Lease Sale 258 would provide qualified bidders 
the opportunity to bid on OCS lease blocks in Cook Inlet to gain 
conditional rights to explore, develop, and produce oil and natural 
gas.
    The Draft EIS analyzes the potential direct, indirect, and 
cumulative environmental impacts of the proposed lease sale on the 
physical, biological, and human environments in the Cook Inlet area. 
See 40 CFR 1508.8 (2019 ed.). The Draft EIS describes a hypothetical 
scenario of exploration, development, production, and decommissioning 
activities that could result from the proposed lease sale and analyzes 
the potential impacts of those activities on the environment. The Draft 
EIS also analyzes reasonable alternatives to the proposed action. In 
addition to the Proposed Action and the No Action Alternative, BOEM 
analyzed three alternatives consistent with internal agency scoping, 
past public input from National Programs and previous lease sales, and 
comments received during the scoping period following publication of 
the NOI in September 2020 to prepare an EIS. The three alternatives 
address potential impacts to the Cook Inlet Distinct Population Segment 
(DPS) of the beluga whale, the Southwest Alaska DPS of the northern sea 
otter, and the Cook Inlet drift gillnet fishery.
    The proposed lease sale area defers certain areas from 
consideration due to potential conflicts with resources of high 
ecological and subsistence value. These deferred areas include: (1) The 
majority of the designated critical habitat for beluga whale and 
northern sea otter, and all of the critical habitat for Stellar seas 
lions and the North Pacific right whale, that are located within the 
Planning Area; (2) 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 (3) many 
of the subsistence use areas for the Native Villages of Nanwalek, 
Seldovia, and Port Graham identified during the Cook Inlet Lease Sale 
191 process.
    In this Draft EIS, BOEM has examined the potential environmental 
effects of activities that could result from the Lease Sale 258 
proposed action along with several alternatives. The Draft EIS is based 
on BOEM estimates of the potential oil and gas resources in the 
proposed lease sale area and an associated scenario that estimates a 
range of potential oil and gas activities, including exploration, 
seismic surveying, on-lease ancillary activities, exploration and 
delineation drilling, development, production, and decommissioning.
    Comment Submission: The public and all interested parties, 
including Federal, state, tribal, and local governments or agencies, 
are invited to submit written comments on the Draft EIS and associated 
information, including the E&D Scenario, through the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. In the field entitled 
``Enter Keyword or ID,'' enter ``BOEM-2020-0018,'' and then click 
``search.'' Follow the instructions to submit comments and view 
supporting and related materials available for this notice.
    BOEM does not accept anonymous comments. Name and contact 
information are required to submit comments on the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal. Before including your address, phone number, email address or 
other personal identifying information within the body of 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 BOEM in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information

[[Page 4118]]

from public review, BOEM cannot guarantee that it will be able to do 
so.
    Public Hearings: BOEM will host virtual public hearings on the 
Draft EIS in February 2021. Information regarding these hearings can be 
found at https://www.boem.gov/ak258. The purpose of these hearings is 
to receive public comments on the Draft EIS. These hearings are 
scheduled as follows:
     February 9, 2021; 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (Alaska Standard 
Time (AKST))
     February 10, 2021; 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (AKST)
     February 11, 2021; 2:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. (AKST)

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4231 et seq.; 43 CFR 46.415 (2019 ed.).

Walter D. Cruickshank,
Acting Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
[FR Doc. 2021-00781 Filed 1-14-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P