It looks like the door is very slightly ajar to the idea of hunting for oil and gas off the Eastern Seaboard of the US, despite the reservations that many Americans will have, given the environmental damage inflicted by the Macondo disaster of 2010.
Prior to this major blow-out, the Obama Administration had signalled the likelihood that it would allow prospecting for oil and gas off the Mid- and South Atlantic coast.
However, after what it claims to have been a “transparent and robust public process” the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) last month issued a Record of Decision (ROD) establishing “the highest practicable level of mitigation measures and safeguards to reduce or eliminate impacts to marine life” while setting a path forward for appropriate geological and geophysical (G&G) survey activities.
BOEM said that the intention was to update 40-year-old data on the region’s offshore resources and that survey activities will take account of not just oil and gas but also offshore renewables and extraction industries such as gravel dredging.
The department says the ROD does not authorise any G&G activities, but rather it establishes a framework for additional mandatory environmental reviews for site-specific actions and identifies broadly-applicable measures governing any future geological and geophysical activities in the sector.
“After thoroughly reviewing the analysis, coordinating with Federal agencies and considering extensive public input, the bureau has identified a path forward that addresses the need to update the nearly four-decade-old data in the region while protecting marine life and cultural sites,” said acting director Walter Cruickshank.
“The bureau’s decision reflects a carefully analysed and balanced approach that will allow us to increase our understanding of potential offshore resources while protecting the human, marine, and coastal environments.”
Mitigation measures that will be required include vessel strike avoidance measures for cetaceans, including special closure areas to protect the main migratory route for the highly endangered and slow moving North Atlantic Right Whale, consideration of geographic separation of simultaneous seismic airgun surveys, and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to supplement visual observers and improve detection of marine mammals prior to and during seismic surveys.
Sea areas to be covered by the measures extend from the Delaware Bay to just south of Cape Canaveral and from the inner edge of Federal waters along that coastline to 600km (400 miles) offshore.
The activities covered include G&G surveys undertaken for potential marine minerals, renewable energy and oil and gas resources.
The PEIS assessed G&G activities conducted under BOEM’s marine minerals, renewable energy and oil and gas programmes through 2020, including deep-penetration and high-resolution seismic surveys, electromagnetic surveys, magnetic surveys, gravity surveys, remote-sensing surveys and geological and geochemical sampling.
Since 1998, BOEM (and its predecessor organisation the MMS) has partnered with academia and other experts to invest more than $50million on protected species and noise-related research.
The bureau has provided critical studies on marine mammals, such as the sperm whale and seismic impacts, and conducted numerous expert stakeholder workshops to discuss and identify further information needs on acoustic impacts.
The agency has mapped out its plans in what is known as a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS).
BOEM published its draft PEIS for public comment on March 30, 2012. During the 90-day comment period, BOEM received more than 55,000 comments from a variety of industry, government and non-government stakeholder groups and the general public.
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