American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2023 - 12

IndustryDigest
Abridged Lease Sale
Prompts Lawsuit
WASHINGTON-The American
Petroleum Institute, Louisiana and
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. are suing the U.S.
Department of the Interior's Bureau of
Ocean Energy Management for its final
notice of sale for Gulf of Mexico Lease
Sale 261. The lawsuit was filed on Aug.
24, one day after BOEM announced it
would hold the final offshore lease sale
mandated by the Inflation Reduction
Act with significantly reduced acreage
and restrictions on oil and natural gas
vessel traffic.
API Senior Vice President and
General Counsel Ryan Meyers says the
lawsuit is a necessary response to DOI's
efforts to further restrict access in the
Gulf of Mexico. " Despite Congress' clear
intention in the IRA, the Biden
administration has announced a 'lease
sale in name only' that removes
approximately 6 million acres of the Gulf
of Mexico from the sale and adds new
and unjustified restrictions on oil and
natural gas vessels operating in this area,
ignoring all other vessel traffic, " he says.
" We intend to use every legal tool at our
disposal to challenge these actions. "
API notes that BOEM's restrictions
follow a July 21 stipulated stay
agreement between the bureau and a
coalition of oil and gas opponents led
by the Sierra Club. The deal prompted
BOEM to issue the notice to lessees
limiting oil and gas vessels operating in
the Gulf.
" Adopting the nighttime and low
visibility restrictions could cut transit
windows to approximately 50%-
requiring industry to balance the
government's recommended practices
against safely and efficiently servicing
ongoing operations, " API warns. " These
restrictions would unfairly single out oil
and gas traffic in an area that is one of
the most used maritime areas in U.S.
waters by a variety of industries.
Thousands of vessels pass through this
area every day. "
The National Ocean Industries
Association points out that the new
restrictions stem from the bureau's
decision to enlarge the designated habitat
area for the endangered Rice's whale.
" This decision by the Biden
administration does an end-around legal
requirements and the public process,
imposing unwarranted restrictions on
12 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
U.S. energy production at a time of
continued inflation with prices rising at
the pump for consumers, " NOIA
asserts. " The Rice's whale is currently
afforded protections under both the
Endangered Species Act and the Marine
Mammal Protection Act. Expanding the
Rice's whale habitat to include areas
where there is only a negligible or no
presence at all will dilute conservation
resources that should be going towards
protecting actual habitat areas.
" 'Sue and settle' or 'regulation by
litigation' fails to respect both
environmental preservation and the
economic vitality that the energy sector
supports, " the group adds.
One of the chief legislative architects
of the IRA, Senator Joe Manchin, DW.V.,
also castigates BOEM's decision.
" This administration continues to
kowtow to radical environmentalists at
the expense of American energy
security and costs to American
families, " he says. " Let me be clear, the
exclusion of more than 6 million
productive acres from the upcoming
offshore oil and gas lease sale in the
Gulf of Mexico based on a settlement
reached in the name of protecting the
Rice's whale while conveniently only
targeting oil and gas is yet another
example of this administration's
intentional undermining of the strong
energy security provisions in the IRA.
Notably, they have issued no such
blanket ban for future offshore wind in
this area. " ❒
Federal Court Says
ANWR Moratorium
Can Continue
ANCHORAGE, AK.-A federal
judge has upheld the U.S. Department
of Interior's moratorium on an oil and
gas leasing program on the Coastal
Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska.
According to court documents,
Alaksa Industrial Development and
Export Authority and State of Alaksa v.
Joseph R. Biden and Native Village of
Venetie Tribal Government centers on
President Biden's Executive Order
13990, which directs DOI to conduct a
supplemental environmental review of
an ANWR leasing program and, during
the review, temporarily halt all activities
related to Coastal Plain oil and gas
leases. In June 2021, Interior Secretary
Deb Haaland issued Secretarial Order
3401 to implement that EO.
The plaintiffs contend DOI's
moratorium runs afoul of
Administrative Procedure Act
requirements.
In her order, Judge Sharon L. Gleason
in the U.S. District Court for the District
of Alaska deems the moratorium's
temporary duration and limited scope a
critical consideration. " Plaintiffs and the
state characterize the moratorium as
'indefinitely' suspending the record of
decision prepared in conjunction with the
program, " she writes. " This
characterization is inaccurate. EO 13990
expressly directs only a 'temporary
moratorium,' and SO 3401 orders a
'temporary halt on all department
activities related to the program.' "
Since the administration evinces an
intent to continue implementing the
program, the ruling states, the
supplemental National Environmental
Policy Act review is the current stage of
that implementation. " Agency
defendants intend to release their draft
supplemental EIS later this year, and
they have outlined the steps that will
follow thereafter as they continue to
implement the program, " the ruling
says. " As such, the moratorium has a
finite, even if inexact, endpoint, and it is
limited to a suspension of lease
operations. "
Gleason's ruling rejects litigants'
claims that a temporary pause amounts
to an indefinite freeze. " An agency may
terminate a moratorium and authorize
activities it previously paused, " it
observes. " Additionally, the temporary
pause implemented here does not
violate any express deadlines in any
statute. The Tax Act mandated only that
DOI hold one lease sale within four
years of its enactment and another
within seven years of its enactment. The
first lease sale was held nearly one year
prior to the statutory deadline; the
second lease sale must occur before
Dec. 22, 2024, after the supplemental
EIS is due to be completed.
" There are no other deadlines in the
Tax Act, such as deadlines to issue
rights-of-way or easements or to
authorize surface development, " the
ruling adds. " These critical points guide
the court's analysis; yet throughout
their briefing, plaintiffs and the state
appear to conflate the statutory mandate
American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2023
