[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 88 (Friday, May 7, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25291-25292]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-10981]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Minerals Management Service
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Mid-Atlantic Proposed Oil and Gas
Lease Sale 220
AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.
ACTION: Notice of indefinite postponement of comment period on and
cancellation of public meetings to scope for an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) for Proposed Mid-Atlantic Oil and Gas Lease Sale 220.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: This Notice serves to cancel scoping meetings and to postpone
the comment period on scoping for Sale 220 until further notice. Three
public scoping meetings that had been scheduled on May 12, 25, and 27,
in the Federal Register (Vol. 75, No. 82, page 22623) to solicit
information to assist MMS in preparing an EIS to evaluate potential
environmental effects of proposed Lease Sale 220 are hereby cancelled.
Also, the public scoping meeting scheduled for May 12, 2010, in
Norfolk, Virginia, to solicit public input on both Sale 220 and the
Geological & Geophysical Programmatic EIS on the Mid- and South
Atlantic OCS (G&G PEIS) is hereby cancelled. This Notice does not
affect the public scoping period for the G&G PEIS. The scoping period
for that PEIS ends on May 17, 2010 (see 75 FR 16830).
Pursuant to the regulations implementing the procedural provisions
of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C.
4321 et seq) (NEPA), MMS had reopened the scoping comment period on the
EIS for proposed Lease Sale 220 for a period of 45 days from the date
of the Federal Register notice on April 29, 2010. The closing date for
scoping under that notice was to be June 14, 2010. The scoping period
for Lease Sale 220 is now postponed until or unless we provide further
notification.
DATES: On April 29, 2010, MMS published a notice in the Federal
Register (Vol. 75, No. 82, page 22623) announcing the continuation of
scoping for a 45-day period and that three public meetings were
scheduled on:
May 12 at Hilton Norfolk Airport in Norfolk, Virginia;
May 25 at Princess Royale Oceanfront Hotel and Conference
Center, Ocean City, Maryland; and
May 27 at Elizabeth City State University Fine Arts
Complex in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
These meetings are cancelled.
Comments: Comments that are provided in the period between
[[Page 25292]]
publication of the notification reopening scoping on April 29, 2010,
and this notification of postponed scoping will be held together with
comments received during the initial scoping period of November 13,
2008 through January 13, 2009. No further comments are being solicited
for scoping of the Lease Sale 220 EIS pending decision by the Secretary
of the Interior.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on the status for the
Sale 220 EIS scoping, please contact Mr. Gary D. Goeke, Chief,
Environmental Assessment Section, Leasing and Environment (MS 5410),
Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, 1201 Elmwood
Park Boulevard, New Orleans, LA 70123-2394, telephone (504) 736-3233.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: With respect to proposed Lease Sale 220, MMS
issued a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS published in the Federal
Register on November 13, 2008 (Vol. 73, No. 220, page 67201), and
included a 45-day scoping period. No scoping meetings were announced at
that time. The MMS decided to extend the comment period and made
announcements in a press release and other media. On January 7, 2009,
MMS published a notice in the Federal Register (Vol. 74, No. 4, page
727) extending the scoping comment period to 60 days. That comment
period expired on January 13, 2009. Scoping had been reopened in the
Federal Register notice published on April 29, 2010 (Vol. 75, No. 82,
page 22623). Today's notice postpones indefinitely scoping for the Sale
220 EIS until or unless MMS provides further notification.
Dated: May 4, 2010.
S. Elizabeth Birnbaum,
Director, Minerals Management Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-10981 Filed 5-6-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P