Appeals Court Says Better Analysis Needed For Lease Sale off Chukchi Sea Oil Prospects

摘要

A federal appeals court decision Jan. 22 sent federal regulators back to the drawing board to estimate the potential environmental impacts of oil development in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska (Native Vill. of Point Hope v. Jewell, 2014 BL 17118, 9th Gir., No. 12-35287, 1/22/14). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an Interior Department agency, failed to base its environmental impact estimate for a 2008 offshore lease sale on the range of potential oil development that the BOEM had judged to be a reasonable possibility. The court agreed with environmental activists and two Alaska native communities that the completed environmental impact statement and a supplemental impact estimate for the lease sale were arbitrary and capricious because they used a lower-end estimate of possible oil production rather than a mid-range estimate without adequate justification.