[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 97 (Friday, May 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43431-43432]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10792]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_WY_FRN_MO4500178570]


Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan 
Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 
Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended (FLMPA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has 
prepared a Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for federal coal 
managed by the Buffalo Field Office and by this notice is announcing 
the opportunity to protest the Proposed RMP Amendment.

DATES: The BLM Director will consider protests to the Proposed RMP 
Amendment. Protests must be postmarked or electronically submitted on 
the BLM's ePlanning site within 30 days after the Environmental 
Protection Agency's (EPA) publication of a Notice of Availability (NOA) 
of the Proposed RMP Amendment and Final EIS in the Federal Register. 
The EPA usually publishes NOAs on Fridays.

ADDRESSES: The Proposed RMP Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS are 
available for review on the BLM ePlanning project website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510.
    Instructions for filing a protest on the Proposed RMP Amendment can 
be found at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest and at 43 CFR 1610.5-2. All 
protests must be submitted in writing and mailed to one of the 
following by any one of the following methods:
     Website: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021239/510.
     Regular and Overnight Mail: BLM Director, Attention: 
Protest Coordinator (HQ210), Denver Federal Center, Building 40 (Door 
W-4), Lakewood, CO 80215.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Bills, Project Manager, 
telephone (307) 684-1133; or at the address BLM Buffalo Field Office, 
1425 Fort Street, Buffalo WY 82834; email [email protected]. Individuals 
in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have 
a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access 
telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United 
States should use the relay services offered within their country to 
make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The BLM prepared the Proposed Plan Amendment 
and Final Supplemental EIS to address a United States District Court 
for the District of Montana order (Western Organization of Resource 
Councils, et al. v. BLM; CV 00076-GF-BMM; 8/3/2022). The Final 
Supplemental EIS provides additional land use planning level analysis 
that considers no-leasing and limited coal leasing alternatives; 
discloses the public health impacts, both climate and non-climate, of 
burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas); and completes new coal 
screens in accordance with 43 CFR 3420.1-4 to determine the lands to be 
made available for further consideration for coal leasing in the 
planning area.
    The Buffalo planning area is located in Campbell, Johnson, and 
Sheridan Counties, Wyoming. The Coal Development Potential Area is 
located within Campbell County, Wyoming, and encompasses approximately 
48 billion short tons of recoverable BLM-administered Federal coal.
    The BLM analyzed three alternatives in detail, including the No 
Action Alternative and two alternatives that

[[Page 43432]]

vary the amount of BLM-administered Federal coal authorized to be 
available for leasing. The alternatives include:
     Alternative A (the No Leasing Alternative): the Coal 
Development Potential Area would be unavailable for leasing;
     Alternative B (the No Action Alternative): approximately 
48.0 billion short tons of recoverable BLM-administered coal within the 
Coal Development Potential Area established in the 2019 RMP Amendment 
and Final Supplemental EIS would be available for further consideration 
of leasing; and
     Alternative C: a reduced level of coal (1.24 billion short 
tons of recoverable BLM-administered coal) would be available for 
leasing within the Coal Development Potential Area.
    The BLM further considered three additional alternatives but 
dismissed them from detailed analysis, as explained in the Proposed RMP 
Amendment and Final Supplemental EIS.
    The BLM selected Alternative A, the No Leasing Alternative, as the 
proposed plan for allocating BLM administered coal; under this 
alternative, no BLM administered coal would be available for leasing 
within the Buffalo Field Office planning area. The proposed plan does 
not affect the area with coal development potential or the area 
determined to be suitable for surface coal mining. Collectively, the 
mines have sufficient federal coal leased to meet forecasted production 
levels into 2041. The remaining leased coal volume provides time to 
advance commercial scale carbon capture and non-thermal coal use 
technologies during the planning period.
    The BLM published a notice of availability for the Draft 
Supplemental EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in the Federal Register on 
May 8, 2023, which initiated a 90-day comment period (88 FR 29691). On 
May 31, the BLM hosted a public meeting in Gillette, Wyoming, to 
present the Draft Supplemental EIS and RMP Amendment to the public and 
solicit comments. The BLM also hosted an on-line public meeting on June 
5, 2023.
    During the public comment period, the BLM received 25 unique 
written submissions containing 147 substantive comments. The Draft 
Supplemental EIS comments helped the BLM refine the Final Supplemental 
EIS and guided the development of the Proposed RMP Amendment.

Protest of the Proposed RMP

    The BLM planning regulations state that any person who participated 
in the preparation of the RMP and has an interest that will or may be 
adversely affected by approval of the Proposed RMP may protest its 
approval. Protest of the Proposed RMP constitutes the final opportunity 
for administrative review of the proposed land use planning decisions 
prior to the BLM adopting an approved RMP. Instructions for filing a 
protest with the BLM Director may be found online at https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/filing-a-plan-protest 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 earlier or submitted electronically through the BLM ePlanning 
project website as described previously. Protests submitted 
electronically by any means other than the ePlanning project website 
will be invalid unless a protest is also submitted as a hard copy. The 
BLM will render a written decision on each protest. The Director's 
protest decision shall be the final decision of the Department of the 
Interior. Responses to protest issues will be compiled and documented 
in a Protest Resolution Report made available following the protest 
resolution online at: https://www.blm.gov/programs/planning-and-nepa/public-participation/protest-resolution-reports. After resolution of 
protests, the BLM will issue a Record of Decision and Approved RMP.
    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.

(Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2)

Andrew Archuleta,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-10792 Filed 5-16-24; 8:45 am]
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