The total acreage expected to be made available for leasing under the five-year lease schedule of OCS sales is approximately 15 million.

The relationship of this proposed sale to other offshore oil and gas development activities in the Gulf of Mexico indicates that additional increments of transportation and storage facilities, platform and pipeline construction activities required if this sale proceeds, for example, will be added to a whole network of existing facilities and activities. As of this writing there is a total of 2,000 offshore platforms on the OCS in the Gulf of Mexico and 5 offshore California. There is a total

of 67 mobile drilling rigs available in the Gulf of Mexico of which 65 are working and there is one mobile rig working offshore California. The Bureau of Land Management as of February 20, 1974 had issued 340 pipeline right-of-way permits resulting in 4,257 miles of pipelines on the OCS. The Geological Survey has issued a total of 830 pipeline permits on the OCS resulting in 2,361 miles of offshore pipelines.

As production declines in existing areas, much of the equipment, transportation facilities, pipelines, platforms, etc., not to mention the personnel and technological expertise presently available, can be used for new areas of activity. As existing areas of production decline the pipelines in place for that system can be used for new production areas, adjacent, or further from shore, reducing the quantity of pipelines necessary to transport production from new areas to shore. This latter

event has already been exercised in some areas of the Gulf of Mexico. Likewise a reduction in quantity of onshore facilities such as treatment plants, refineries, storage facilities, etc., is made possible by utilizing existing facilities, equipment and technology. Nevertheless,

in this proposed sale some new pipelines, drill rigs, platforms and expansion of existing onshore facilities and perhaps construction of new ones where necessary, will be required although the quantities involved will be less than they would be without utilization wherever possible of existing facilities.

The

Cumulative effects on the environment from OCS leasing will result as more and more areas are made available for an expanded offshore mineral development program. An increased level of potential conflict with navigational hazard will result from the accumulation of additional offshore structures associated with OCS leasing. This will have its greatest effect on commercial shipping and fishing activities. effect of increasing the numbers and lengths of pipelines to shore will also have a cumulative impact on the onshore and offshore environment. The effect is expected to have its greatest impact in those nearshore and onshore areas which feature estuaries, marsh, and wetlands environments. The biota in the path of a pipeline will undergo disruption, loss of habitat, and will suffer physiological stress, injury or death. The overall, relative significance of this effect in most

areas is considered low because of the small areas involved and the

short duration of the activity. In eastern and central portions of coastal Louisiana, the cumulative effect of pipelines has been more

severe, due to the necessity of using large, permanent flotation canals through the unconsolidated marsh substrate for pipeline laying operations. In addition to pipelines, additional increments of transportation, storage, refinery, treatment and other facilities and activities associated with oil and gas production on the OCS will have an overall, cumulative effect on the coastal environment and local and regional economics. The initial effect on biota will be one of disruption and destruction in the construction areas. The effect on air and water quality is unknown, at this time. The overall significance of these effects on a cumulative basis are unknown, but are

considered adverse.

There will be a cumulative effect resulting from solid and liquid waste disposal associated with OCS development and any oil polluting events should they occur. The effect will be physiological stress and death for oiled plants and animals and possible contamination of marine food sources for man. The scope, duration, location and overall significant effects of an oil spill on a cumulative basis are unknown. However, the area of greatest potential for receiving lethal and sub-lethal adverse effects on a cumulative basis are embayments and semi-enclosed waters where many species undergo early development

and are more vulnerable to toxic compounds. The probability of a massive oil spill resulting from operations on the Outer Continental Shelf impacting upon areas such as these is considered to be low because of the distances involved and the fact that in the history of OCS leasing, no

oil spill resulting from an OCS lease area has ever penetrated semienclosed embayments, estuaries, or wetlands. By far the most likely single source of a massive spill in these sensitive areas is from

tankers. In the past, tankering of OCS production has not been necessary principally due to its proximity to refineries.

The sale under consideration is the third sale listed in

the proposed five-year schedule released in July 1973. The first two of these sales have been held. This schedule was issued in

response to President Nixon's Energy Message of April 18, 1973, which directed the Secretary of the Interior to take steps to triple the annual acreage leased on the OCS by 1979.

Since that time, the Middle East oil embargo, the uncertainty of foreign energy imports, and the steep rise in costs of importing energy with the corresponding implications for the U.S. balance of payments, have all underlined the need to develop domestic energy sources. On November 7, 1973, the President, in an address to the Nation, stressed the need for energy independence with a proposal for self-sufficiency by 1980 entitled Project Independence.

Steps to alleviate the energy shortage taken by the Federal Government in the last few months include establishment of a major conservation program to reduce use of energy by Federal agencies, creation of a Federal Energy Office to serve as a focal point for energy actions taken by the Government, institution of a fuel allocation program, and passage by Congress of laws reducing the national highway speed limits to no more than 55 miles per hour and putting the

Nation on year-round daylight savings time starting on January 6, 1974.