Action involving other Outer Continental Shelf areas include: A final environmental impact statement issued for proposed OCS Sale #39. The proposal calls for the sale of 330 tracts covering 1.8 million acres in the northern Gulf of Alaska. Hearings held on a draft environmental statement pertaining to OCS Sale #40 on January 27 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The proposal calls for the sale of 154 tracts covering 876,750 acres located in the Baltimore Canyon Trough area of the mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. The sale is tentatively scheduled for late spring of 1976. ★ Release of a final environmental statement for OCS Sale #41 proposed for the Gulf of Mexico. This sale was held in New Orleans in February and 135 tracts covering 698,077 acres. ★ An announcement of tract selection for OCS Sale #42 proposed for the north Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf. The list includes 206 tracts covering 1,172,796 acres selected from among tracts nominated by the oil and gas industry. The tracts are tentatively scheduled for sale in August 1976. Before any final decision is made pertaining to this sale the Bureau of Land Management will prepare both draft and final environmental statements. ★ The nomination of 433 tracts totaling 2,136,135 acres located on the Outer Continental Shelf in Alaska's lower Cook Inlet. The nominations represent tracts the petroleum industry would like to see offered in a proposed sale tentatively scheduled for that area. This proposed sale is designated as OCS Sale #CI. The Department will now evaluate the nominations, select tracts, and prepare both draft and final environmental statements before it reaches any firm decision about holding the sale. ★The nomination of 778 tracts totaling 4,429,298 acres on the Outer Continental Shelf off the south Atlantic coast. This sale has been identified as OCS Sale #43. It is tentatively scheduled for the winter of 1976-77. A call by the Department for nominations of tracts the industry would like to see offered in OCS Sale #46, proposed for the western Gulf of Alaska in the winter of 1976-77. ★ Development of Departmental regulation barring Petroleum companies showing production of more than 1.6 million barrels a day from jointly bidding with each other in Outer Continental Shelf lease sales. Out of 126 companies that submitted production reports to the Department of the Interior, nine companies will be affected by the new regulations. ★ Publication of Departmental regulations setting forth procedures for State participation in planning for OCS development. the regulations are finally adopted. Proposed regulations were first published on December 11, 1974, but after a review of the comments received by the Department, Interior officials decided to publish a revised proposal rather than attempt to formulate final regulations. The Department has issued a draft environmental statement pertaining to the proposed development of oil shale resources by the Colony Development Operation in Garfield County, Colorado. OTHER MINERAL A final environmental statement pertaining to phosphate mining on the Los Padres National Forest near Los Angeles, California was released on November 26. The Department has scheduled a two-year study of the effects of phosphate mining on the Osceola National Forest in north Florida will have on the water and wildlife in the area. Secretary of the Interior Thomas Kleppe has told commercial coral gatherers that the Department's recent emergency order to protect coral on the Nation's Outer Continental Shelf applies to the waters around Hawaii. The emergency order is effective until September 30, 1976. In the meantime, the Department is developing permanent regulations to protect coral resources of the Outer Continental Shelf. GRAZING FEES The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture have announced new grazing fees for 1976. Fees for National Resource Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management will be increased from $1.00 per AUM to $1.51. On the National Forest lands the fee will be increased from $1.11 to $1.60. An AUM is the equivalent of one cow grazing for one month. Law Library Univ. of Calif. at Davis 95616 "The Shipwreck," a relic of the of sailing ships, is one of the m ing features of the wilderness within the King Range Conservation inc oil well at nearby Petrolia dentally a venture that was commercially unsuccessful. Within the conservation area is the old Coast Guard lighthouse at Punta Gorda that once guided ships around off-shore rocks. Although the King Range is in the heart of the Redwood Empire, by a curious combination of climate and geography only a few redwood trees grow within its boundaries. The area lies in Humbolt and Mendocino counties about 230 miles north of San Francisco. The King Range, often called "California's lost coast" is also unique in the legal status it has been afforded by Congress. The King Range Act, Public Law 91-476, provided for it to be designated as the first national conservation area after certain conditions were met. The Act has some special features of far-reaching significance: its provisions include land acquisition authority, cash equalization payments in land exchanges, and continued private ownership within the boundaries with some Federal authority to regulate uses; an approach to mineral development providing measures for environmental protection; and, finally, the concept of a conservation area to be managed for multipleuse in contrast to designations aimed at single or limited re source uses. Congressman Don Clausen, author of the King Range Act, said "... in addition, the area is unique in the fact that it was the people of our own north coast who provided the impetus for the creation of the area and the support that was necessary to obtain its final enactment into law." |