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BLM-Alaska Overview

BLM-Alaska Overview. Bud C. Cribley BLM-Alaska State Director Western Interstate Region Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2014. Alaska-Lower 48 Size Comparison. At 586,400 square miles (365 million acres), Alaska is larger than these eastern states combined. Field Offices in Alaska.

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BLM-Alaska Overview

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  1. BLM-Alaska Overview Bud C. Cribley BLM-Alaska State Director Western Interstate Region Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2014

  2. Alaska-Lower 48 Size Comparison At 586,400 square miles (365 million acres), Alaska is larger than these eastern states combined

  3. Field Offices in Alaska BLM Jurisdictional Boundaries

  4. BLM-Alaska Programs • Monitoring • Permitting • Restoration • National Landscape Conservation System • Management of public land records • Mining

  5. BLM-Alaska Programs • Programs Unique to Alaska: • Land Conveyance & Survey • Subsistence • Alaska Fire Service • National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska • Trans-Alaska Pipeline Oversight

  6. Land Conveyance & Survey Program • BLM’s largest land transfer program – 150 million acres • Conveyed area size of CA to State of Alaska • Area roughly size of State of Washington to Native Corps

  7. Trans-Alaska Pipeline BLM Oversight • Oversees and monitors one of the largest, longest pipelines in world • 48-inch diameter, 800 miles long Trans-Alaska Pipeline/utility corridor

  8. NPR-A • 22.8 million acres • Largest contiguous block of federally managed land in US • Roughly size of Indiana • High profile – oil reserve, rich environmental landscape

  9. NPR-A

  10. Legacy Wells Natural oil seeps near Simpson Core Test #31

  11. NPR-A

  12. NPR-A

  13. NPR-A

  14. NPR-A

  15. National Issues • Hydraulic Fracturing Rule • Venting and Flaring • Mitigation • Fire • Sage Grouse

  16. Hydraulic Fracturing Rule • After dozens of meetings, thousands of comments, new path forward • More than a million comments received • About 90% of wells on federal and Indian land fracked nationwide • Proposed rule: • Updated regs • Establish baseline environmental safeguards • Requires public disclosure of chemicals used • Improves assurances of wellbore integrity • Requires water mgmt plans

  17. Venting and Flaring • Capturing natural gas from oil & gas projects • Reduce greenhouse gas • Capture for productive use, economics (GAO estimated $2 million lost per year in royalties) • New rulemaking needed - regs date back to 1979 • DOI and BLM reaching out now to state and tribal governments, others for input on new regs • New regs would establish appropriate standards to prevent waste and promote conservation of produced oil & gas

  18. Mitigation • BLM’s new approach to mitigation for renewable energy development – landscape perspective • Regional approach: • Identify priority opportunities across landscapes • Achieve highest mitigation benefit • Released draft Regional Mitigation manual section last June – interim policy guiding mitigation planning for land use authorizations

  19. Fire • Fire season severity has increased: • Decreased snow pack • Increased temperatures • Longer droughts • Longer fire seasons, bigger fires (doubled in acreage over last 3 decades) • 2014 Budget (CR) - $36 million to DOI for fire suppression • 2015 Admin budget proposal – special disaster relief cap adjustment for use when firefighting costs exceed budgets

  20. Greater Sage Grouse Planning • March 2010 – FWS “warranted but precluded” finding • BLM’s Planning Strategy – complete land use plans by end of 2014, give FWS time to evaluate before court-ordered final listing decision in 2015 • In effort to prevent listing, BLM evaluating SG conservation across 68 planning areas • Stakes are high – hundreds of thousands of sqare miles of sagebrush habitat throughout West

  21. Greater Sage Grouse Impacts • Impacts to Energy development, Recreation, Livestock grazing, Fire management • Proactive approach with Forest Service to maintain wide range of options, reduce regulatory burdens • Ultimate goal to eliminate need to list • Appreciate the work of many of you here as we implement conservation measures into plans • Strong partnerships with counties, states, including Western Gov’s Task Force

  22. Questions?

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