LUJAN RULES EIS NOT ALWAYS REQUIRED FOR DEVELOPMENT PHASE

U.S. Interior Sec. Manuel Lujan last week ruled the Bureau of Land Management does not need to prepare a full scale environmental impact statement (EIS) in every case when operations on an oil and gas lease shift from exploration to development.

The ruling stemmed from a dispute last year in which Michael Gold, who operates a children's camp in the San Juan basin of New Mexico, appealed BLM's approval of Amoco Production Co.'s development plans to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), a quasijudicial body.

Gold contended the National Environmental Policy Act required an EIS to be prepared before production could proceed.

A spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association said Rmoga is 11 very pleased" with Lujan's decision.

"Without this ruling," he said, "we would be faced with a shutdown of production on BLM lands. It's a significant reaffirmation of what government procedures have been."

DISPUTE, AGREEMENT

IBLA said the four page environmental assessment was inadequate and ruled Amoco should have been required to prepare a full EIS.

The Rmoga spokesman said in the Gold case, "Rmoga agreed that BLM should have prepared an EIS. But we disagreed there should be one in every case."

Amoco and Rmoga then asked Lujan to assert his jurisdiction and review the case.

They called the IBLA ruling a radical departure from established law and 20 years of practice" under NEPA that could impede oil and gas development.

Until the IBLA ruling, a less time consuming environmental assessment had been considered sufficient in most cases before proceeding with development.

LUJAN'S DECISION

Lujan decided last week IBLA was correct in ruling the New Mexico environmental assessment was inadequate but said a general rule was unnecessary.

He agreed with IBLA that the BLM's environmental assessment was flawed because it failed to cover wildlife issues fully, consider alternatives, and consider the cumulative effects of development.

He said, "The inadequacy of the environmental assessment prepared by BLM in this case requires new review. Should that review disclose significant potential impacts, full EIS preparation is a measure BLM should and must consider."

However, Lujan said, IBLA did not have authority to issue a general rule requiring, except in limited circumstances, BLM to prepare a full EIS when lease operations proceed from exploration to development.