BLM Announces Public Input Opportunities for the first of "Section 368" Energy Corridor Regional Reviews
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The Bureau of Land Management today announced public input opportunities for six regional reviews that will analyze the existing energy corridors designated for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission and distribution facilities on Western Federal lands under BLM or U.S. Forest Service management.
The BLM, Forest Service, and Department of Energy recently released a study of the effectiveness of these corridors (accessible athttp://corridoreis.anl.gov/) that identified questions to be considered during subsequent regional reviews.
These reviews will analyze whether any additions, deletions, or changes are needed to the 6,000 miles of corridor that were designated by the BLM and Forest Service under Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The corridors were designated after the agencies completed a broad-scale Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement in 2008 (accessible at the Website listed above), titled “Designation of Energy Corridors on Federal land in the 11 contiguous Western states” (see Website above). The first of the regional reviews contemplated by the corridor study start this September. It will focus on corridors in southern California, southern Nevada, and western Arizona.
To facilitate participation, the three agencies have jointly developed abstracts for each energy corridor and will be seeking input from the public and stakeholders – including Federal, Tribal, state, and local governments – to ensure as complete and current a record of facts related to the corridors as possible, before the development of recommendations.
Webinar-based orientations to the Region 1 corridor abstracts will be offered on Sept. 7 and Sept. 29, 2016, at 9 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time at http://corridoreis.anl.gov/. Completion of the last review for the corridors is set for late 2019, depending on available funding.
Public meetings for Region 1 abstracts will be held on the following dates at the following sites:
o September 20, 2016, in Phoenix, Arizona, at the BLM National Training Center (9828 N 31st Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85051) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Arizona local time.
o September 22, 2016, in Palm Springs, California, at the University of California Riverside - Palm Desert Center, Room B200 (75080 Frank Sinatra Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT
o September 27, 2016, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Hampton Inn Tropicana (4975 S. Dean Martin Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89118) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT.
The public and stakeholders will also have the opportunity to review and comment on the Region 1 corridor recommendations before they are finalized and those Webinar and meeting dates will be publicized at least two weeks prior to the meetings.
The table below shows the full regional review sequence. Information on opportunities for engagement in Regions 2 through 6 will be provided as those reviews are initiated:
Regional Review Sequence | ||
Energy Corridor Region | Start Public Input | Issue the Recommendations |
Region 1 (CA, NV, AZ) | September 2016 | February 2017 |
Region 2 (AZ, NM, CO) | March 2017 | September 2017 |
Region 3 (CO, UT, NV) | October 2017 | March 2018 |
Region 4 (WY, MT) | April 2018 | October 2018 |
Region 5 (CA, NV) | November 2018 | April 2019 |
Region 6 (MT, ID, OR, WA) | May 2019 | November 2019 |
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.