Murkowski Applauds Desision on OCS

MURKOWSKI APPLAUDS DECISION ON OCS

ALASKANS GUARANTEED THAT VIEWS WILL BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT

- Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski today welcomed a decision by the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) to delay adding the North Aleutian Shelf (Bristol Bay area) to the next Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sale schedule. The decision today by MMS will allow additional time to study whether the area can be leased safely in the future, while extending the time in which Alaskans can offer feedback on potential lease proposals.

"The decision by the Minerals Management Service to extend the public comment period and delay the inclusion of the North Aleutian Shelf to the OCS schedule reflects the continuation of a very thoughtful and reasonable process," said Senator Murkowski. "By keeping Bristol Bay off the draft schedule, the area will remain open for further study and allows Alaskans to continue to comment on any proposed lease. While additional study work is done and public comments continue to be weighed and reviewed, the area remains protected by a Presidential moratorium. During the next two months, I encourage Alaskans who have comments about the sale proposals to submit their thoughts to MMS for full consideration."

The MMS is proposing to offer new sales in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off northern Alaska and in Cook Inlet in Southcentral. No sales are proposed by the draft plan unveiled today in the Gulf of Alaska, off Kodiak, in Hope or Norton Basin or the Navarin Basin, all sites of previous sales, or in the state's other five OCS planning areas.

Alaskans who have comments about any of the sale proposals, including the continuing study of the North Aleutian Shelf area, should submit comments to the MMS during the next two months. A formal 60-day comment period will open when today's plan is formally published in the Federal Register, most likely in the next few days. The MMS is then planning to publish another draft OCS sale plan this summer, conduct an Environmental Impact Statement where it will seek additional public comments, and issue a proposed final sale program in winter 2007. The next plan would then take effect in Spring 2007, but additional public comment is required for each specific sale.

MMS in their draft plan, besides seeking further comment on the North Aleutian sale and for a sale off Virginia, also is seeking comments about a boundary change that would allow some new leasing off the Louisiana coast - Sale 181 - in an area of deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico in waters that some in Florida have opposed to opening to leasing.

Information on the plan is available on the MMS web site: http://www.mms.gov/5-year/2007-2012main.htm (.) Comments on the plan can be submitted by writing to: Renee Orr, 5-Year Program Manager, Mineral Management Service (MS-4010), Room 3120, 381 Elden St., Herndon, VA 20170. Detailed comments on submitting comments are contained in the draft proposed program at: http://www.mms.gov.ooc/press/2006/press0208.htm (.)

http://murkowski.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=251458