The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for two upcoming Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sales, Lease Sale 259 and Lease Sale 261, to comply with the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
On Oct. 6, 2022, BOEM issued a Draft Supplemental EIS, and received feedback from the public during a 45-day comment period. During the comment period, BOEM held two virtual meetings to provide information about the Draft Supplemental EIS and to collect public comments. This resulted in BOEM receiving nearly 76,000 public comments on the Draft Supplemental EIS.
The Final Supplemental EIS includes an expanded greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis and provides an analysis of monetized impacts from these estimated GHG emissions.
The Inflation Reduction Act mandates Lease Sale 259 to be held no later than March 31, 2023, and Lease Sale 261 to be held no later than Sept. 30, 2023. The Notice of Availability will publish in the Federal Register on Jan. 13, 2023.
