Environmental Assessment Preparation for Proposed Lease Sale 180 in the Western Gulf of Mexico (2001)

Resumo

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is beginning preparation of an environmental assessment (EA) for proposed Lease Sale 180 (scheduled for August 2001) in the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. In January 1997, MMS issued a Call for Information and Nominations/Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS (Call/NOI) for the four proposed Western Gulf of Mexico sales in the current 5-year leasing program. In 1998, MMS prepared a single Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for all four sales. The multisale Final EIS, filed in May 1998, included an analysis of a single, typical sale, and a cumulative analysis that included the effects of holding all four sales, as well as the cumulative effects of the long-term development of the planning area. The MMS stated in the EIS that an EA would be prepared for each lease sale after the first sale covered in the EIS (Sale 171). The preparation of this EA is the first step in the prelease decision process for Sale 180. The proposal and alternatives for Sale 180 were identified by the Director of MMS in January 1997 following the Call/NOI and were analyzed in the Western Gulf multisale EIS, which is available from the Gulf of Mexico OCS Region's Publ