2007-11-14_REVISION - C1980007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I have also considered Executive Order 13212, which directs federal agencies to take steps to increase the energy supply to our nation, and the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This decision will result in about 2.3 miles of temporary road construction in the West Elk IRA. I understand that many interested parties are concerned about any development in (IRA). Road construction activities in IRAs are currently managed under the direction of the 2001 RACR, as reinstated by the 9`h District Court for the Northern District of California (FEIS, pp. 7-8). The temporary road construction activities in the IRA approved in this decision are consistent with the 2001 RACR, as approving this construction is allowable under Exception 7 to the 2001 RACR (roads needed for the continuation, extension, renewal of a mineral lease on lands that were under lease as of January 12, 2001) since the leases involved were issued prior to 2001 (C-1362 dates to 1967 and COC-56447 dates to 1995, see FEIS, pp.5-6)`. ,Consistent with requirements of the RACR, all temporary roads constructed in the IRA for the purposes of this project will be reclaimed by full obliteration including recontouring and. revegetation when no longer needed to access MDWs. Further, the roads will only be open during project use to the proponent and for administrative purposes (i.e., no public access). See Appendix C of this document or Table 2-1, Design Criteria in the FEIS for information on Roads and Roads in Inventoried Roadless Area, and other resources to see measures that will be taken to minimize effects in the IRA. In addition, this area (as described in Chapter 3 of the FEIS, Inventoried Roadless Areas) has been effected by both road construction and other uses. The portion of the West Elk IRA where the project area is located has seen the construction of approximately 30 miles of road since 1979 and was not deemed suitable for inclusion in the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1980, nor was it considered suitable in the 2005 Roadless Inventory and Evaluation of Potential Wilderness Areas (GMUG;. 2005) due to compromised quality and management of roadless character. Although the Forest Service responsibility within the federal coal program relates to use of the surface lands, I acknowledge that implementation of this decision could result in the release of about 7 million cubic feet per day of methane. Further, I understand other federal agencies and private interests are concerned about release of methane from the mine into the atmosphere, and I share the goal of having the gas resources under lease to facilitate mitigating2 the release of methane by some mechanism should it be feasible. Up to this point, mitigating released methane has not been possible because the gas resources (which are federally managed) are not under lease, and therefore implementing any mitigation could not occur (FEIS, pp. 44 to 46, .Chapter 5 and responses to EPA letter in project file). To this end, I committed that the GMUG would complete the needed work to forward consent to BLM leasing the gas lease parcels that are coincident with the Federal coal leases in the project area. However, due to the presence of IRA in the project area, not all of the lands nominated for gas lease could be brought forward for lease as such would be inconsistent with the RACR as reinstated by the 9`h District Court for the Northern District of California. As of the date of this ROD, the GMUG had forwarded all lands nominated for gas lease in the project area outside of the IRA to the Rocky Mountain Regional Office per standard procedure. By completing this work, the first critical step to affording potential methane release mitigation is underway. On a related note, interested parties also expressed the desire to condition the gas leases so to be complimentary with on-going coal operations. The BLM Colorado State office and Forest Service are currently reviewing this issue. It is anticipated that these particular gas lease nominations would not be ready for gas lease sale until 2008. ' No road construction in the IRA portions of Federal Coal Lease COC-67232 (effective March 1, 2007) is included in this decision. 2 Methods of mitigating methane release to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and current understanding of feasibility of them are dicussed in the FELS Chapter 2 and 5, and in the GMUG response to an EPA letter in the project file. 9