[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 71 (Tuesday, April 15, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15719-15720]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06388]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[PO #4820000251; Order #02412-014-004-047181.0]
Rescission and Termination of the Environmental Impact Statement
Analyzing the Potential Environmental Effects From Maintaining
Secretary Jewell's Coal Leasing Moratorium
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of rescission and termination.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Headquarters Solid
Minerals is announcing the rescission of the Notice of Intent to
prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) and termination of the
EIS analyzing the potential environmental effects from maintaining
Secretary Jewell's coal leasing moratorium.
DATES: This rescission and termination takes effect immediately.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Indra Dahal, Solid Minerals Deputy
Division Chief, at 571-458-6637, or by email to [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: Pursuant to the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the BLM published on May 1, 2023, its Notice
of Intent (NOI) to prepare an EIS to analyze the potential
environmental effects from maintaining Secretary Jewell's coal leasing
moratorium (88 FR 26588). The EIS would have analyzed the potential
effects from maintaining or revoking former Secretary of the Interior
Sally Jewell's coal leasing moratorium.
Background Information: In January 2016, then-Secretary of the
Interior Sally Jewell issued Secretary's Order 3338 (Jewell Order)
commencing preparation of a new programmatic EIS and establishing a
moratorium on Federal coal leasing, with some exemptions.
On March 29, 2017, then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke
implemented Executive Order (E.O.) 13783, ``Promoting Energy
Independence and Economic Security,'' by issuing Secretary's Order 3348
(Zinke Order), which rescinded the Jewell Order and ended the
moratorium on coal leasing. Immediately thereafter, Citizens for Clean
Energy, Ecocheyenne, Montana Environmental Information Center, Center
for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, WildEarth
Guardians, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe filed a lawsuit in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Montana asserting that the issuance
of the Zinke Order required an environmental analysis in compliance
with NEPA. Additionally, the States of California, New York, New
Mexico, and Washington also filed suit and the Court consolidated the
cases. The National Mining Association and the States of Wyoming and
Montana intervened.
On April 19, 2019, the Court held that the Zinke Order was a final
agency action that triggered the need to comply with NEPA, requiring
the Department to conduct an appropriate environmental review of that
action. To comply with the Court's Order, the BLM released an
environmental assessment (EA) for public comment on May 22, 2019, and
published the final EA and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
on its website on February 26, 2020. Shortly thereafter, the Plaintiffs
amended their complaints to challenge the scope and content of the EA.
On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued E.O. 13990, entitled,
``Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and
Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,'' revoking
[[Page 15720]]
E.O. 13783. On April 16, 2021, Secretary Haaland rescinded the Zinke
Order through Secretary's Order 3398 (Haaland Order) but did not
reinstate the Federal coal leasing moratorium.
On August 12, 2022, the Court vacated and remanded the EA and
associated FONSI and reinstated ``[t]he coal leasing program moratorium
established by the Jewell Order until the completion of sufficient NEPA
review analyzing revocation of the moratorium.'' That court ruling was
the impetus for publishing the BLM's NOI to prepare an EIS to analyze
the potential environmental effects from maintaining Secretary Jewell's
coal leasing moratorium on May 1, 2023 (88 FR 26588).
In October 2022, Intervenor-Defendants appealed the decision to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On February 21, 2024, the
Ninth Circuit ruled that the District Court's ruling was incorrect,
that the Haaland Order definitively revoked the Zinke Order in its
entirety, and that the repeal of the Zinke Order is enough to render
the case moot and appropriate for dismissal. For those reasons, the
Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded the District Court decision with
instructions to dismiss the case as moot. As a result, there is no
Jewell Order coal leasing moratorium in effect to analyze, and the BLM
is rescinding the Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS and is terminating
the EIS announced in the Federal Register at 88 FR 26588.
(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.9)
Mitchell Leverette,
Acting Assistant Director, Energy, Minerals, and Realty Management.
[FR Doc. 2025-06388 Filed 4-14-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4331-29-P