Court Opinion

ID: 9478586
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:52:43.543202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:30.488124
License: Public Domain

STARR, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
I write separately to address briefly a solitary point of divergence with my colleagues on the issue of the Secretary’s compliance with NEPA’s strictures. In light of the governing standard of review, as aptly elucidated in the court’s opinion at pages 294-295, 297, it appears to me that the Secretary’s analysis of the cumula*320tive effects of the OCS program on migratory mammals passes muster. It does so, I hasten to add, without flying colors. There is little doubt that the Secretary’s discussion of these matters is vulnerable to the criticisms laid at his feet by the court.
Nevertheless, I am persuaded that other parts of the record combine to carry the day for the Secretary on the record as a whole. For example, in discussing the cumulative impacts on marine mammals in the Washington/Oregon planning area, the Secretary stated:
Assuming these projects are permitted, MMS’s seabed mining will contribute to underwater noise and disturbance offshore of many marine mammal habitats and migration routes_ Marine mammals which migrate through this Planning Area will be subjected to other impacts outside of the area. Cumulative impacts to these migrating species will probably intensify due to other oil and gas activities within their range to the north and south, including the OCS activities off California and Alaska. Noise levels are expected to increase throughout much of the range of these species.
FEIS IV.B.7.-25. Similar cumulative analysis was provided in examining impacts on threatened and endangered species in the North Aleutian region:
Development in this planning area could add long term effects, especially to gray whales which migrate through the planning area. Gray whales, because they migrate through OCS Planning Areas from California to Alaska are the species most likely to be affected. The nearshore area appears to be one of the first significant spring feeding areas and displacement from these areas by oil and gas activities could result in long term changes of migration routes and timing of the migration.
FEIS IV.B.15.-15-16. A final example comes from the Secretary’s discussion of cumulative impacts on threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Alaska region:
The offshore movement of the gray whale migration has not conclusively been linked to an increase in OCS activities of [sic] California.... This indicates that although minor localized course alterations or avoidance reactions have occurred, major long-term effects on migration routes or population levels are not anticipated for the OCS sound sources tested.... Impacts on gray whales throughout their migration route (California to the Beaufort Sea) are expected to be moderate.
FEIS IV.B.11.-21; see also FEIS IV.B.7.-32-83 (discussing cumulative impacts on threatened and endangered species in Washington/Oregon region); FEIS IV.B. 10.-43 (discussing cumulative impacts on threatened and endangered species in Southern California region). This evidence persuades me that the Secretary’s analysis of cumulative impacts, while not as comprehensive as a reviewing court might reasonably want it to be, is sufficiently informed and well-considered to meet the rather generous standard of review.
I am unable, however, to reach the same conclusion with respect to the Secretary’s discussion of migratory salmon. Like my colleagues, I am unable to discover any meaningful analysis of impacts on this species, see FEIS IV.B.11.-9; IV.B.12.-5, 6; IV.B.14.-7, and therefore join the court in concluding that this issue should be remanded for further review.