Opinion ID: 807161
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Potential Impacts of an Oil Spill

Text: NEPA requires that we determine whether the agency took a “hard look” at the likely effects of the proposed action. Native Ecosystems, 428 F.3d at 1239. Taking a “hard look” includes “considering all foreseeable direct and indirect CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY v. SALAZAR 9559 impacts.” N. Alaska Envtl. Ctr. v. Kempthorne, 457 F.3d 969, 975 (9th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). An EA also “must fully assess the cumulative impacts of a project.” Barnes, 655 F.3d at 1141; Te-Moak Tribe of W. Shoshone of Nev. v. U.S. Dep’t of Interior, 608 F.3d 592, 602-03 (9th Cir. 2010). [13] Plaintiffs argue that the EA “fails to analyze the significant foreseeable impacts of oil spills.” The EA discusses the possible severe, even lethal, impacts of oil spills on polar bears, Pacific walruses, and their prey. However, the EA focuses primarily on the risk of “small operational spills” because it considers the likelihood of a large spill to be very low. Plaintiffs point to a comment from the Marine Mammal Commission, citing a Minerals Management Service (“MMS”) estimate that the likelihood of a large oil spill in the Chukchi Sea was somewhere between 33 to 51 percent “over the life of the development and production activity.” The Service discussed this estimate in its rule listing the polar bear, but explains in the EA that the scope of its analysis was more narrow because the Chukchi Sea incidental take regulations cover only exploration activities and only for a period of five years. In its 2008 final rule, the agency explains: These regulations are of a finite duration (i.e., five years) and authorize incidental take associated with specified exploration activities only. The analyses did not assess the potential for spills from full-scale development and production because that was beyond the scope of analysis. . . . In the event of a large spill, we would reassess the impacts to the polar bear and walrus populations and reconsider the appropriateness of authorizations for taking through Section 101(a)(5)(A) of the MMPA. 73 Fed. Reg. at 33,246. The final rule cites another MMS estimate that “during exploratory activities, the probability of a 9560 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY v. SALAZAR large oil spill occurring throughout the duration of these proposed regulations (five years) is very small.” Id. at 33,232. The EA refers to this same MMS estimate in stating that “the chance of a large . . . oil spill from exploratory activities in the Chukchi Sea is very low.” The EA’s failure to mention the other MMS estimate, regarding the likelihood of a large spill over the life of development and production activities, is not arbitrary and capricious given the relatively narrow scope of the activity contemplated in the incidental take regulations.