ELR Citation: 44 ELR 20016
No(s). 12-35287 (9th Cir. Jan 22, 2014)

The Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM's) EIS analyzing the environmental effects of proposed oil and gas development leases in the Chukchi Sea of the northwest coast of Alaska violated NEPA. Although the EIS properly took account of incomplete or unavailable information, its reliance on a one million barrel estimate of total economically recoverable oil was arbitrary and capricious. BOEM failed to justify its choice of the lowest possible amount of oil that was economical to produce as the basis for its analysis. Nor did BOEM take into account variation in oil prices in arriving at its estimate. And BOEM has not provided an adequate explanation for its decision to base its EIS only on the amount of oil expected to be produced from the first field in the leased area of the Chukchi Sea. Given the uncertainties involved in the Chukchi Sea, BOEM had no choice but to make an estimate. But having decided that oil production was reasonably foreseeable, NEPA required BOEM to base its analysis on the full range of likely production if oil production were to occur. The court, therefore, reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings.