NEPAtown

I’ll create a less-public discussion for this topic here on GovLoop’s NEPAtown, but if you want your comments and discussion to be as public as possible (instead of just an email to a CEQ intern), then join the NEPAtown google-group.

Posted just now via twitter NEPAtown (Stephen Buckley):

#CEQ to request public comment to improve #NEPA regs…[Read more]

Wow, Scott! This is hugely significant, not only for the MMS’ NEPA office, but for CEQ’s treatment of Categorical Exclusions which, as you know, is/was considering comments (like BP’s April 9th letter) for new guidance on that topic!

I have started a Discussion on this topic (above), so let’s continue the thread there.
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Yes a discussion topic would be appropriate, how do you do that?
v/r
Scott Sysum

Deepwater Horizon NEPA
According to the Washingtonpost article:
The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those…[Read more]

Wow, Scott!

I haven’t checked out the links yet, but I bet it looks like you have taken us a whole lot closer to the truth regarding the role of NEPA in “what went wrong” with BP’s Deepwater Horizon.

Maybe we should move this from the Comment Wall to a Discussion. What do you think?

A source for the BP exploration plan.
http://www.fedsmith.com/

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/regulate/environ/deepenv.html

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/regulate/environ/ea_grid/NEPADWSTRATEGY.PDF

Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Operations and Activities: Environmental Assessment
OCS Report MMS 2000-001
The Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior has published an environmental…[Read more]

My MMS NEPA contact said “Go to the Gulf of Mexico Region of the MMS.gov site. I believe you will find it there.”

I have not tried it yet though.
v/r
Scott Sysum

Note: I did send an email to MMS’ NEPA office asking for reference to the relevant NEPA doc, but I would not hold my breath on a quick response. (But I hope I’m wrong on that.) I will tell you all when I get a response.

In the meantime, under MMS “Recent NEPA Documents“, you can see a link to an EA for “a floating production, storage, and…[Read more]

Does anyone know where to find the NEPA analysis by the Mineral Management Service (MMS) for BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil-platform (i.e., the one that is leaking)?

I bet we’ve all been wondering what it said about “worst-case scenario”. So it sounds like the beginning of a very high-profile review of whether the NEPA process somehow failed.

Some…[Read more]

Whoa, that was more of an answer than I expected! I hope your cancer is under control and that you are going well.

Hi GeekChick
Well it’s a long and short story. I started taking the NEPA courses from Shipley for my job. I had been involved with environmental compliance, the media programs, and facility related. Due to consolidation efforts, we gave up our property ownership to another command, and became a tenant at our base. Environmental media compliance…[Read more]

Thanks, Scott. I took Clear Writing a few years ago….It seemed like a good course, but honestly I didn’t really need it. I am a very good writer already (lots of that in my background and education). So what I really need is more of the NEPA-development material. I would love to get a certificate, but I just don’t have the time right now (two…[Read more]

Hi GeekChick
I agree with David. I have taken many of the Shipley courses. I was attempting to obtain a NEPA Certificate form Utah State University, which is affiliated with Shipley.

I thought the How to Manage the NEPA Process/Write Effective NEPA Documents was a very good course that discussed the management of the process as well as the…[Read more]

Thanks David! I’m glad you mentioned the Managing NEPA class — that’s the other one I’m considering! I would like to take both, frankly. Increasingly we are doing third party contracting, and I will find myself more and more serving as IDT leader for these projects. I think knowing how to manage the process better will serve me well. I’ll check…[Read more]

The Shipley courses are all well written and generally taught well. They are designed at the cognitive and advanced knowledge level and are generally fairly prescriptive – basically they the “know what” and the “know how” or 100 to 300 level courses. Quite often Rhey Solomon is the lead instructor for several of their courses. Rhey is the former…[Read more]