[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 97 (Friday, May 17, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43432-43433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10793]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[BLM_MT_FRN_MO4500178570]


Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan 
Amendment and Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 
Miles City Field Office, Montana

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, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has prepared a 
Proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) Amendment and Final 
Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for public lands 
managed by the Miles City 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/2021155/510. Documents pertinent 
to this proposal may be examined online at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2021155/510 and at the Miles City Field Office.
    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/2021155/510.
     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: Irma Nansel, Project Manager, 
telephone

[[Page 43433]]

(406) 233-3653; or at the address BLM Miles City Field Office, 111 
Garryowen Road, Miles City, MT 59301; 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 Miles City planning area is located in Carter, Custer, Daniels, 
Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, McCone, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, 
Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Treasure, Wibaux, and portions of Big 
Horn and Valley Counties, Montana, and encompasses approximately 2.7 
million surface acres of BLM-managed public land and 11.7 million acres 
of Federal coal mineral estate.
    The BLM has analyzed four alternatives in detail, including the No 
Action Alternative and three alternatives that vary the amount of BLM-
administered Federal coal available for further consideration for coal 
leasing.
    The No Action Alternative is the decision from the 2019 Approved 
RMP Amendment, which identified approximately 1,214,380 acres of 
Federal coal as available for further consideration for coal leasing 
across the Miles City Field Office.
    The action alternatives applied the coal screens (43 CFR 3420.1-
4(e)) using current data and evaluated the issues identified through 
internal and public scoping. Application of coal screen 1 (development 
potential) identified approximately 1,745,000 Federal coal acres as 
having development potential. The action alternatives also address the 
NEPA deficiencies identified by the court order associated with the 
application of the multiple-use screen. Specifically, they apply a 
multiple-use climate change criterion that uses greenhouse gas 
emissions as a proxy for climate change. Reducing availability of 
Federal lands for coal leasing reduces the contribution of greenhouse 
gas emissions from the development and combustion of Federal coal from 
the planning area.
    Alternative B analyzes approximately 69,310 acres of Federal coal 
as available for further consideration for coal leasing. Alternative C 
analyzes approximately 810 acres of Federal coal as available for 
further consideration for coal leasing, and Alternative D, the Proposed 
RMP, analyzes 0 (zero) acres of Federal coal as available for further 
consideration for coal leasing. The BLM revised the coal reasonably 
foreseeable development scenario from the 2015 Miles City RMP using the 
most current publicly available coal production data to forecast 
development during the planning period, which runs to 2038. The revised 
reasonably foreseeable development scenario was applied to all 
alternatives.
    The BLM further considered one additional alternative but dismissed 
it from detailed analysis, as explained in the Final Supplemental EIS.
    The BLM selected Alternative D as the proposed plan for allocating 
BLM administered coal; under this alternative, no Federal coal would be 
available for leasing within the Miles City 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. The BLM has determined that additional leasing of Federal coal 
is not necessary based on the current analysis in the Final 
Supplemental EIS. The analysis indicates that operating mines in the 
planning area have existing leases with sufficient coal reserves to 
maintain existing mine production levels until 2035 for Spring Creek 
Mine and 2060 for Rosebud Mine.
    The BLM published a notice of availability for the Draft 
Supplemental EIS and Potential RMP Amendment in the Federal Register on 
May 8, 2023 (88 FR 29689), which initiated a 90-day comment period. On 
June 6th, the BLM hosted a public meeting at the BLM Miles City Field 
Office in Miles City, Montana, 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 7, 2023. Eight members of the 
public attended the online meeting. During the public comment period, 
the BLM received 14 unique written submissions containing 167 
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)

Sonya I. Germann,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2024-10793 Filed 5-16-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-20-P