The federal government on Friday released a status update on the court ordered revision of an Environmental Impact Statement for Lease Sale 193 in the Chukchi Sea. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found in an April ruling that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had underestimated how much oil may be recoverable in Arctic Ocean development.
The Wilderness Society’s arctic program director Lois Epstein said it appears BOEM is approaching the work of revising the development scenarios for the EIS in a thorough manner, but she said BOEM should not set a limit such as the 10 month time frame that was proposed to the court.
“As an engineer I know these analysis take quite a bit of time” she said. “The modeling takes a long time to get it right. And we think they should just take the time that’s needed. If anything, they should give the court a longer time frame and then back off should they finish it sooner.”
Epstein said BOEM officials had indicated that overtime may be needed to get the report finished within the 10 months. BOEM will issue the next status report on July 22nd.
Lori Townsend is the news director and senior host for Alaska Public Media. You can send her news tips and program ideas for Talk of Alaska and Alaska Insight at ltownsend@alaskapublic.org or call 907-550-8452.
