What was included in this new environmental sensitivity analysis that responded to the Court of Appeals decision?
In addition to shoreline/coastal resources, the new analysis includes consideration of the sensitivity of offshore/marine resources, divided into three components of the different areas of the OCS that may be affected by oil and gas activities: marine habitats, marine productivity, and marine fauna (i.e., birds, fish, marine mammals and sea turtles). The expanded analysis considers the sensitivity to oil spills and other factors, such as sound and physical disturbance, and increased sensitivity due to climate change and ocean acidification. The revised environmental sensitivity analysis relies on almost 50 reports, studies, and datasets, more than half of which were not available when the original 2007-2012 relative environmental sensitivity analysis was prepared.
