BLM postpones public meetings on Coastal Plain 1002 leasing

SHUTDOWN DELAYS PROCESS FOR OPENING ANWR

The Bureau of Land Management, an agency impacted by the partial federal government shutdown, will postpone the scheduled public meetings this winter concerning the draft environmental impact statement for the 1002 Area of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program.

The BLM plans to hold the meetings Anchorage, Arctic Village, Fairbanks, Kaktovik, Fort Yukon, Venetie, Utqiaġvik, and Washington, D.C., at times and locations that had yet to be announced.

But the Department of Interior is currently shut down due to the impasse between President Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats over border security.

The deadline for submitting comments has not changed, however. Documents relating to this environmental impact statement can be found here.

Comments on the Draft EIS can be sent by Feb. 11 via internet or mail:

• Website: www.blm.gov/alaska
• Mail:
  Attn: Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program EIS
  222 West 7th Avenue, Stop #13
  Anchorage, Alaska 99513

Congress in 1980 identified the Coastal Plain for its potential for oil and natural gas resources.

The first lease sale would be held after the Final EIS and Record of Decision is issued and will offer no fewer than 400,000 acres area-wide of high-potential lands for bid.

Alaskans weigh in on ANWR oil development