The following planning criteria were developed by the BLM and made available for review by the public during scoping.

• The SEIS/Amendment will supplement the 2003 Montana Statewide Final Oil and Gas Environmental Impact Statement and Proposed Amendment of the Powder River and Billings Resource Management Plans (Statewide Document).
   
• The SEIS/Amendment will be completed in compliance with FLPMA and all other applicable laws.
   
• The SEIS/Amendment will incorporate the fluid minerals planning requirements of BLM Handbook H-1624-1, Planning for Fluid Minerals when considering a phased development alternative(s).
   
• The format for the SEIS/Amendment will follow the format from the Statewide Document.
   
• The SEIS/Amendment will be prepared by an interdisciplinary team with specialists in recreation, fisheries, economics, sociology, hydrology, archaeology, air quality, wildlife, realty, minerals and range management. SEIS/Amendment scoping will help define phased development, and the alternative(s) chosen will be reasonable, achievable, and measurable. The theme for the alternative(s) considered will follow those in the Statewide Document. Those alternatives, or components of those alternatives, found not to be reasonable, achievable, and/or measurable will be considered and dropped from further analysis.
   
• The planning area is the BLM-administered oil and gas estate in the Powder River and Billings RMP areas: Wheatland, Golden Valley, Musselshell, Sweet Grass, Stillwater, Yellowstone, Carbon, Big Horn, Treasure, Powder River and portions of Custer, Rosebud and Carter counties.
   
• Data acquisition will consist of the compilation of existing data, supplemented with data collected and research conducted since the Statewide Document was issued, data not available for the Statewide Document analyses, and appropriate literature search.
   
• The purpose of the SEIS/Amendment will be to consider and analyze the effects from CBNG phased development; the cumulative effects from CBNG production, including effects from the proposed Tongue River Railroad; and a discussion of how private water well mitigation agreements will help alleviate impacts from methane migration and groundwater drawdown.
   
• The SEIS/Amendment will also consider and analyze significant new environmental information relevant to environmental concerns and having bearing on the preferred alternative or its impacts.
   
• SEIS/Amendment planning will help identify significant new environmental information relevant to environmental concerns and having bearing on the preferred alternative or its impacts.
   
• The analysis area is any potentially affected lands, or interests therein (i.e. mineral estate), regardless of ownership.
   
• Assumptions for the analyses, including the reasonably foreseeable development scenario and the reasonably foreseeable future actions from the Statewide Document, will be carried forward in the SEIS/Amendment. Cumulative projects evaluated will be carried forward with one known exception: the discussion will be modified to include the cumulative effects of the proposed Tongue River Railroad.
   
• The management and mitigation measures instituted since the Statewide Document ROD will be carried forward as features of the Phased Development Alternatives in the SEIS/Amendment.
   
• Native American Consultation and Coordination - The Crow and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations are located within the planning area. Close coordination will take place to ensure their needs, and those of any other affected tribes, are considered within the BLM trust responsibilities. The BLM will conduct nation-to-nation consultation with the tribes consistent with the BLM policy.
   
• Interagency consultation will occur as needed to comply with regulations, rules, and BLM policies.
   
• The BLM will strive to base new decisions in the ROD on the SEIS/Amendment and make them compatible with the existing plans and policies of adjacent tribes and federal, state, and local agencies, as long as the adjacent jurisdictional decisions are in conformance with the legal mandates for management of public lands.
   
• Any new decision or new mitigation measure required as a component of the SEIS/Amendment will be enforceable, reasonable, achievable, and measurable and will lend itself to monitoring.

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No warranty is made by the Bureau of Land Management as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of these data for individual use or aggregate use with other data.

Updated: October 21, 2008