Opinion ID: 148925
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bureau Decides to Revise the Powder River Basin Resource Management Plan.

Text: During the late 1990s, federal lessees proposed drilling about 23,900 new coal bed methane gas wells in the Powder River Basin over a ten-year period. Lessees Supp.App. (LSA) at 224, 262-63. Without new federal drilling, nonfederal drilling would cause severe federal royalty losses by reducing reservoir pressure and siphoning federal gas. Id. at 12, 157-59. To consider the proposal, the Bureau agreed to prepare an environmental impact statement analyzing amending the Basin's resource management plan. See 65 Fed. Reg. 38571 (June 21, 2000); 65 Fed.Reg. 38572 (June 21, 2000). As well as evaluating the lessees' plan, the statement would study other proposed development plans that met the Bureau's project criteria. Eligible plans first had to describe different ways for the Bureau to provide federal minerals to meet the nation's energy needs and to facilitate the protection of the financial interest of the United States by preventing drainage of federal minerals in the project area. LSA at 263, 266, 282. Alternatives also needed to identify mitigation measures to address issues and conditions of approval, to assess leasing in other areas, and to review the existing management plan. Id. at 266. Studying these alternatives would provide the basis to analyze and disclose the impacts of the level of development proposed by the lessees. Id. at 266.