Drilling, mines, other projects hastened by Trump order: “The Trump administration is seeking
to fast track environmental reviews of dozens of major energy and infrastructure projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, including oil and gas drilling, hazardous fuel pipelines, wind farms and highway projects in multiple states, according to documents provided
to The Associated Press. The plan to speed up project approvals comes after President Donald Trump in June ordered the Interior Department and other agencies to scale back environmental reviews under special powers he has during the coronavirus emergency.
More than 60 projects targeted for expedited environmental reviews were detailed in an attachment to a July 15 letter from Assistant Interior Secretary Katherine MacGregor to White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow. The letter, obtained by the Center for
Biological Diversity through a freedom of information lawsuit, does not specify how the review process would be hastened. It says the specified energy, environmental and natural resource projects “are within the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to
perform or advance.” Included on Interior's list are oil and gas industry proposals such as the 5,000-well Converse gas field in Wyoming, the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas terminal in Oregon, and the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in Virginia. Other
projects targeted for quick review include highway improvements in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and other states; storm levees and wetlands restoration initiatives in Louisiana; the Lake Powell water pipeline in Utah; wind farms in New Mexico and off the
Massachusetts coast; and mining projects in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Alaska.”
[AP, 9/2/20]
https://bit.ly/34Y9xAI
New oil and gas proposal cuts down on duplication — agency: “A proposal to ease regulations
on oil and gas development on national forests could help nearby property owners who participate without ever digging on federal soil. Adjacent landowners who extract oil and natural gas from the ground under national forests through horizontal drilling could
be among the big winners from the Forest Service's moves to streamline its program for such development. That's the scenario in places like Ohio, where much of the oil and natural gas taken from the Wayne National Forest comes from drilling pads located on
private property next door. While not the typical situation across federal lands, it's not unusual in the East, where the surface on national forests is federally owned but rights to the minerals underneath belong to private owners. "For several years, the
landowners in areas adjacent to the Wayne National Forest have been prevented from making their own choices in whether to utilize their mineral rights for development, even though 90 percent of the mineral rights in the region are owned by private landowners,"
the Appalachia-Ohio chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners wrote to the Forest Service in 2018, when proposed changes were first raised in an advance notice of proposed rulemaking. The Forest Service's latest proposal pits oil and gas interests
that say the regulations are too burdensome against conservation groups that say the agency is overlooking wildlife and other environmental priorities. Among other features, the proposal published in the Federal Register today shifts more responsibility away
from the Forest Service and toward the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which has primary responsibility for oil and gas development on federal land. It's open for public comment for 60 days.”
[Forest Service, 9/2/20]
https://bit.ly/31StSFL
Army Corps still mulling Dakota Access' fate: “The Army Corps of Engineers is still working
out what to do about the Dakota Access pipeline, the agency told a federal court yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had ordered the Army Corps to provide an update by the end of August on its next steps after a lower
court struck down an approval for the oil pipeline to cross beneath Lake Oahe. As part of that order, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Dakota Access needed to be shuttered, but the D.C. Circuit later reversed. Without the Army Corps
authorization, the pipeline is now encroaching on federal lands, which would generally require removal of the project, the agency said. But the Army Corps has discretion in how it can respond to the encroachment, and the agency could allow the project to remain
in place. "Neither the Army or Corps Regulations or the Omaha Memorandum require the Corps to take any particular action to cure an encroachment within a specified time period, nor is there any requirement to ultimately cure the encroachment at all," the federal
agency wrote in its update to the district court. The Army Corps had stated in an Aug. 10 status conference that it would make its initial decision on any enforcement actions within 60 days. Even if it did decline to act at first, the agency said it was not
waiving its right to pursue enforcement at a later date. "Therefore, in its discretion the Corps may elect to take enforcement action at any time, or defer making a decision on enforcement action until completion of the [National Environmental Policy Act]
and [Mineral Leasing Act] processes when it has made a decision whether a new easement is warranted," the agency wrote to the court. The Army Corps also confirmed it is planning on proceeding with an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the pipeline, as
ordered by the district court in March.”
[E&E News, 9/1/20]
https://bit.ly/2EUxDSb
U.S. District Court upholds fuelbreak project on Los Padres National Forest: “An effort
to reduce wildfire risks on the Los Padres National Forest and protect nearby communities can proceed after U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Walsh ruled in favor of the Tecuya Ridge Shaded Fuelbreak Project above Frazier Park, California. The American Forest
Resource Council (AFRC), joined by the California Forestry Association (CalForests) and Associated California Loggers (ACL), intervened in court to defend the Forest Service against the lawsuit. The Tecuya Ridge Shaded Fuelbreak Project was developed to thin
forests along Tecuya Mountain within the national forest that have become unnaturally overgrown, weakened by drought and beetle attacks, and highly vulnerable to wildfire. Agency land managers determined forest management activities were needed to restore
the area back to its historical conditions and boost the forest’s resiliency to disturbances. The project also installs a strategic fuelbreak along the ridgeline to give Kern County firefighters a better opportunity to contain a fire before it could threaten
people and homes. The project area was identified in both the Mt. Pinos Community Wildfire Protection Plan and the Los Padres National Forest Strategic Fuelbreak Assessment as a priority for fuel-reduction treatments. “We applaud this ruling allowing public
land managers to implement this project to improve the health of these forests, while helping to protect local communities from wildfire,” said AFRC Staff Attorney Sara Ghafouri. “As California continues to face severe and devastating wildfires, it is important
for public agencies to quickly take action to mitigate these extreme risks to people, homes and our public lands.’”
[Paso Robles Daily News, 9/2/20]
https://bit.ly/2Dq5ou8
Critics Say Massive Swan Valley Forest Project Lacks Specifics: “The Flathead National Forest
released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement last week, moving one step closer to finalizing a 15-year logging and fire mitigation project in the Swan Valley. But critics say the Mid-Swan project, which covers an area larger than Flathead Lake, violates
federal law due to the project's lack of specificity. When the U.S. Forest Service releases documents assessing the impact of its proposed projects, it gives the public information about where the project will take place; and within that boundary, the locations
of particular actions such as timber sales and stream restoration. But those projects typically take place on about 3,000 to 7,000 acres. Keith Hammer, Executive Director of the Swan View Coalition says the recently released draft environmental impact statement
for the 174,000-acre Mid-Swan project, which stretches from south of Swan Lake to Condon, lacks that specificity. "What they’re saying in this EIS is ‘Well, sometime over the next 15 years, we’re going to do something over this huge … chunk of landscape. But
we’re not going to tell you where we’re going to do it, and just when and how, until later, after you’ve already missed the opportunity to go to court to stop it." The Flathead National Forest is proposing commercial logging for between 18,000 to 40,000 acres,
and up to 13,000 acres of prescribed burns. It’s also looking to build between 7 and 49 miles of potentially permanent roads. The proposal calls for decommission around 44 miles of existing roadways.”
[Montana Public Radio, 9/1/20]
https://bit.ly/2Z1IDnY
Justin McCarthy
He/Him/His
Director, NEPA Campaign
The Partnership Project
C: 540-312-3797
E: jmccarthy@partnershipproject.org
The Partnership Project, a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, is a collaborative effort of over 20 of the country’s most influential advocacy organizations, including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, League of Conservation Voters, and Natural
Resources Defense Council.