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

Heading: OCSLA-based Climate Change Claims

Text: Petitioners raise two distinct but related OCSLA-based climate change claims. First, Petitioners argue that the Secretary violated sections 18(a)(1) and (a)(3) of OCSLA by failing to account for the environmental costs resulting from consumption of the fossil fuels extracted from the OCS. Second, Petitioners contend that Interior violated section 18(a)(2) of OCSLA because Interior failed to adequately consider climate change caused by consumption of these fossil fuels and the present and future impact of climate change on OCS areas as section 18(a)(2)(H) requires. To the extent these claims concern Interior's alleged failure to consider the effects brought about by consumption of oil and gas extracted under the Program, we hold that OCSLA does not require Interior to consider the global environmental impact of oil and gas consumption before approving a Leasing Program. Therefore, OCSLA does not require Interior to consider the further derivative environmental impact that oil and gas consumption has on OCS areas. Accordingly, Petitioners' OCSLA climate change claims fail. Contrary to Petitioners' claims, the text of OCSLA does not require Interior to consider the impact of consuming oil and gas extracted under an offshore Leasing Program. Under Section 18(a) of OCSLA, Interior must prepare Leasing Programs so that the size, timing, and location of leasing activity ... will best meet national energy needs. 43 U.S.C. § 1344(a). Section 18(a)(1) states further that Interior must consider the values of resources contained in the outer Continental Shelf, as well as the potential impact of oil and gas exploration on other resource values of the [OCS] and the marine, coastal and human environments. 43 U.S.C. § 1344(a)(1) (emphasis added). Similarly, section 18(a)(3) states that [t]he Secretary shall select the timing and location of leasing ... so as to obtain a proper balance between the potential for environmental damage, the potential for the discovery of oil and gas, and the potential for adverse impact on the coastal zone. 43 U.S.C. § 1344(a)(3). We noted in Watt I that such a cost-benefit analysis of oil and gas extraction under section 18(a)(3) is satisfactory when an individual area's potential benefits are weighed against its potential costs. See Watt I, 668 F.2d at 1318. The Secretary therefore need only consider the potential for environmental damage on a localized area basis. And, under section 18(a)(2), Interior is required to determine the impacts of exploration, development, and production of oil and gas. As the statutory language and our precedent show, Interior's obligations under OCSLA extend to assessing the relative impacts of production and extraction of oil and gas on the localized areas in and around where the drilling and extraction occurred. Interior need not consider the impacts of the consumption of oil and gas after it has been extracted from the OCS. OCSLA therefore concerns the local environmental impact of leasing activities in the OCS and does not authorizemuch less requireInterior to consider the environmental impact of post-exploration activities such as consuming fossil fuels on either the world at large, or the derivative impact of global fossil fuel consumption on OCS areas. Moreover, Interior's continuing duty to promulgate five-year Leasing Programs under OCSLA renders Interior's consideration of the effects of oil and gas consumption unnecessary. Petitioners argue that Interior's consideration of the environmental impacts of greenhouse emissions associated with the Program might have altered Interior's ultimate decisions concerning the Program's leasing activities, such that the OCS areas at issue here might not have been included in the Program. But Petitioners' argument ignores the fact that Interior's decisions about the size and location of leasing areas or the timing of oil and gas extraction do not affect the impact that consuming oil and gas may have on climate change. That environmental impact is the same regardless of where and how the oil and gas are extracted. Therefore, even if, as Petitioners assert, Interior were not to adopt the Program at issue here, Interior's continuing duty to promulgate Leasing Programs would compel it to promulgate a different Leasing Program, potentially approving oil and gas extraction from other areas of the OCS. This extraction would presumably lead to the same overall consumption effects as those under the current Program. Petitioners' consumption-related claims appear to stem from the flawed premise that, before Interior approves an offshore oil and gas Leasing Program, it must first consider whether it should extract oil and gas from the OCS at all. But Congress has already decided that the OCS should be used to meet the nation's need for energy. Indeed, OCSLA instructs Interior to ensure that oil and gas are extracted from the OCS in an expeditious manner that minimizes the local environmental damage to the OCS. See 43 U.S.C. § 1344. Interior simply lacks the discretion to consider any global effects that oil and gas consumption may bring about. Interior was therefore correct to point out in its EIS that the more expansive effect of oil and gas consumption is a matter for the Congress to consider when decisions are made regarding the role of oil and gas generally, including domestic production and imports, in the Nation's overall energy policy. Consequently, it was unnecessary for Interior to consider the climate change effects brought about by the consumption of oil and gaseither as oil and gas consumption affects the global environment generally or the OCS areas specifically. Interior's decision to limit its inquiry to the effect of the Program's production activities on climate change is consistent with its obligations under OCSLA, and was not error. Here, there is no doubt that Interior considered the effects of the Program's production activities on climate change generally, and the present and future impact of climate change on the local OCS areas. In the EIS, which Interior incorporated by reference in its Program approval, Interior estimated the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from leasing, exploration, and development in the OCS, and examined the cumulative impact of these emissions on the global environment. Interior also noted that potential impacts are most pronounced in [the] Arctic Subregion, and could affect the areas of Alaska in which Petitioners assert an interest. Accordingly, Petitioners' OCSLA-based climate change claims fail.