Opinion ID: 187344
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: OCSLA Baseline Information Claim

Text: In their OCSLA baseline data claim, Petitioners contend that Interior lacked sufficient baseline biological information for the Chukchi, Beaufort, and Bering Seas to rationally approve the Leasing Program. According to Petitioners, Section 20(b) of OCSLA requires Interior to establish, update, and monitor baseline information for OCS planning areas in a leasing program. See 43 U.S.C. § 1346(b). Petitioners argue that, despite this obligation, Interior has admitted that gaps exist in the data for the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas. Notwithstanding the existence of these information gaps, Interior has indicated that it will defer the gathering of this data to fill these gaps until the Leasing Program reaches the later stages. Though Petitioners concede that Interior is not required to conduct all the comprehensive baseline research before approving the Leasing Program, Petitioners nevertheless argue that, in order for Interior to comply with OCSLA, Interior must either conduct comprehensive baseline research to fill these information gaps, or provide a research plan detailing how Interior intends to obtain this information before the next OCSLA stages. Petitioners argue that such a research plan is implicitly required by Section 18(b)(3) of OCSLA, which sets forth Interior's obligation to provide appropriations and staffing estimates for conducting environmental studies and preparing an EIS. See 43 U.S.C. § 1344(b)(3). Interior's failure to comply with either requirement before approving the Leasing Program has prevented Interior from fully considering Section 18(a)(2)'s factors, which, in turn, has skewed Interior's balancing of those factors under Section 18(a)(3) of OCSLA. See 43 U.S.C. §§ 1344(a)(2)-(3). As a result, Petitioners argue, the Leasing Program lacks any rational support. This argument is wholly without merit. Though Section 20(b) imposes a requirement to conduct additional studies to establish environmental information for a particular area, this obligation commences [s]ubsequent to the leasing and development of that area. 43 U.S.C. § 1346(b) (emphasis added). Where, as here, Interior has merely completed the approval stage of a leasing program, Section 20(b)'s additional research requirements are not yet implicated. Indeed, Petitioners' proper concession that Interior is not required to complete its comprehensive baseline research prior to approving the Leasing Program confirms this interpretation. In fact, this concession undermines Petitioners' argument that such research is required at the initial program approval stage. Having made such a concession, Petitioners cannot now credibly argue that Section 20(b) of OCSLA somehow required Petitioners to complete this research before the Leasing Program was approved. Even if Petitioners were able to rely on Section 20(b) to support their claim that the Leasing Program was irrational due to gaps in the baseline data, this argument would falter because, based on the record, Interior relied on substantial baseline evidence in approving the Leasing Program. As its final EIS demonstrates, Interior considered and chronicled the geological, biological, and environmental information of the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi Seas, and many of their inhabitants. To be sure, a review of areas as wide and diversely populated as these Arctic seas will likely miss some of the seas' myriad inhabitants. These gaps in information, however, must be considered in conjunction with the pyramidic structure of a five-year leasing program. Watt I, 668 F.2d at 1297. At this early stage of the Leasing Program, the existence of some gaps in the baseline data for these three seas is not fatal to the Leasing Program. This is also tempered by the fact that Interior has recognized that such gaps exist and has indicated its intention to conduct additional research to close them. North Slope, 642 F.2d at 613 (affirming the district court's denial of petitioners' OCSLA claim that research was insufficient because Interior acknowledged that [m]ore research is necessary; the research is being done). Petitioners are therefore left with their only remaining argument: to comply with OCSLA, Interior must provide a research plan detailing how it attempts to obtain the necessary baseline information before the next stage of the Leasing Program. However, OCSLA does not set forth a requirement that Interior must provide such a plan for obtaining this baseline data. Petitioners' claim that Section 18(b)(3) implicitly sets forth such a requirement is off the mark. Section 18(b)(3) states that a leasing program shall include estimates of the appropriations and staff required to ... conduct environmental studies and prepare any environmental impact statement. 43 U.S.C. § 1344(b)(3). In other words, Section 18(b)(3) simply requires that Interior estimate how many staff and how much money it needs to obtain environmental impact information. It does not require that Interior set forth a research plan detailing what exact environmental information Interior needs, or how or when Interior plans on obtaining that information. Petitioners' interpretation is therefore counter to the clear language of the statute. Accordingly, Petitioners' baseline data claim must fail.