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June 10, 2009
AGENCy cancels oil and gas
auction targeting Remote lands in Monterey County
ForestWatch
Files Administrative Protest; Monterey County, Congressman Farr
Request Postponement
Today, the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
cancelled a June 23 sale of 21 oil and gas leases in remote
portions of Monterey County. The decision was announced just
days after ForestWatch and other conservation organizations
filed an
administrative protest of the sale, and after the
Monterey
County Board of Supervisors and
Congressman
Sam Farr wrote letters demanding additional time to review
the sale and its environmental impacts.
The sale,
announced last month, targeted more than 35,000 acres in
southern Monterey County (map).
About half of the acreage was located just a few miles from the
Ventana Wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest, in a
region home to sensitive wildlife areas and several endangered
species, including the San Joaquin kit fox and the California
condor. The Bureau failed to prepare an Environmental Assessment
to evaluate the impacts of oil leasing, exploration, and
development, relying instead on studies that failed to analyze
how these particular leases would affect air and water quality,
wildlife habitat, and greenhouse gas emissions.
On June 8,
the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal protest to
the Bureau’s State Director, asking him to withdraw the lease
sale so that adequate environmental studies could be performed,
consistent with federal law. Other groups joining the protest
included the Ventana Conservation Land Trust and Los Padres
ForestWatch, the later challenging the inclusion of 16 parcels
covering more than 15,000 acres in the foothills near the Los
Padres National Forest.
All three
organizations also formally notified the Bureau of their intent
to file a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act because, in
approving the lease sale, the agency failed to adequately
consider impacts to endangered species in the region, including
the kit fox and California condor. The agency relied on outdated
information about the species’ status and the impacts of the
lease sale program on the species.
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