Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Jackie Speier, District 1
Supervisor Ray Mueller, District 3
Subject: Opposition to Oil and Gas Development on Public Lands Managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution conveying to the United States Department of Interior - Bureau of Land Management the County of San Mateo's unwavering opposition to oil and gas development on public lands within the central coast field office planning area.
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BACKGROUND:
The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has filed a notice in the federal register asking for comment on the scope of an upcoming supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). The SEIS would examine the impacts of oil and gas drilling on BLM-managed public lands and mineral estate in the central coast field office (CCFO) planning area, which includes the Counties of San Mateo, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Contra Costa, and parts of Fresno, Merced, and San Joaquin counties.
DISCUSSION:
In 2019, during the prior Trump administration, BLM approved an amendment to the Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the CCFO planning area, and adopted a final EIS, that would have identified approximately 683,100 acres of BLM oil and gas federal mineral estate in the CCFO planning area as open to oil and gas development, including a BLM-managed federal mineral estate in the southern portion of San Mateo County. The final EIS analyzed several alternative projects that would have identified less BLM-managed land as open to oil and gas development, and the approved amendment to the RMP was not analyzed.
The EIS and RMP amendment was litigated, and through a settlement agreement BLM agreed to complete the SEIS to analyze all project alternatives. The purpose of the SEIS scoping process is to identify concerns, potential impacts, relevant effects of past ac...
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