Click here to read the ROD. Here’s the introduction:
This Record of Decision (ROD) approves the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) proposal to amend 10 Resource Management Plans (RMP) to designate certain public lands, managed by the BLM, in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming as available for application for leasing and future exploration and development of oil shale and tar sands resources. This ROD does not address, and does not change, any decisions for the management of the public lands for other resource uses and values in the areas subject to these 10 RMPs. The RMP amendments were described as the Proposed Plan Amendments in the November 2012 Proposed Land Use Plan Amendments for Allocation of Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources on Lands Administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PRMP/FPEIS) (BLM 2012a). This ROD provides the background for the development of the plan amendments, describes in brief the alternatives considered, and presents the rationale for approving the proposed decisions contained in the Proposed Plan Amendments. In addition, the ROD describes the clarifications and modifications made to address protests received on the plan amendments. The BLM’s purpose and need for this planning action is to evaluate the appropriate mix of allowable uses with respect to oil shale and tar sands leasing and potential development in light of Congress’s policy emphasis on these resources. Specifically, as adopted, the Proposed Plan Amendments amend the applicable RMPs to close certain specified areas in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming currently open for application for future leasing and development of oil shale or tar sands. The BLM’s focus in this planning initiative is the potential development of oil shale and tar sands as sources of energy, consistent with congressional policy as expressed in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which required that a commercial leasing program be established for these resources. Under the approved 2013 land use plan amendments, the BLM amends 10 land use plans in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to make approximately 678,000 acres available for potential development of oil shale, and approximately 132,000 acres available for development of tar sands.
This ROD provides that the areas allocated as open for future oil shale leasing are, at this time, open only to research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) leases. The BLM would issue a commercial lease only when a lessee satisfies the conditions of its RD&D lease and the regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 43, Subpart 3926 (43 CFR Subpart 3926) for conversion to a commercial lease. The preference right acreage, if any, which would be included in the converted lease, would be specified in the RD&D lease. Similarly, while there is no formal RD&D program for tar sands, this resource is not, at present, a proven commercially viable energy source. Therefore, the BLM has determined that it is necessary to obtain more information about the environmental consequences associated with tar sands development, prior to committing to broad-scale commercial development.
The land use plan amendments remove from potential oil shale and tar sands leasing the following categories of lands within the planning area in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming (1) all areas that the BLM has identified as having wilderness characteristics (LWC) (2) the whole of the Adobe Town “Very Rare or Uncommon” area, as designated by the Wyoming Environmental Quality Council on April 10, 2008; (3) core or priority sage-grouse habitat, except in Wyoming, where the BLM will coordinate its approach with the policy direction in Wyoming’s Executive Order (E.O.) 2011-5, which has been recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as an adequate regulatory mechanism for the conservation of Greater Sage-Grouse; (4) all Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) and areas currently under consideration for designation as ACECs; and (5) all areas identified as excluded from commercial oil shale and tar sands leasing in Alternative C of the September 2008 Oil Shale and Tar Sands (OSTS) Programmatic EIS (BLM 2008a). In total, more than 1,340,770 acres of the planning area in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming are excluded from oil shale leasing and development, and more
than 301,100 acres in Utah are excluded from tar sands leasing and development.If and when applications to lease are received and accepted for oil shale or tar sands resources within the acres available for leasing under this ROD, the BLM will conduct additional required analyses, including consideration of direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of the proposed development, reasonable alternatives, and possible mitigation measures. On the basis of that analysis of future lease application(s), the BLM will establish general lease stipulations and best management practices (BMPs) and amend applicable land use plans, if necessary. After a lease is authorized, actual development will require additional analysis to address the site-specific conditions of the proposed development and to develop mitigation measures as necessary. The attached RMP Amendments to Address Land Use Allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming (Attachment — Appendix A) (also referred to as the Approved Plan Amendments) describes the specific decisions made in this ROD.
