Contacts: Tracey Moriarty
703-787-1571
Stephen Boutwell
703-787-1531
The Public Meeting scheduled for today in Augusta, Maine is still being held despite inclement weather.
On January 4, 2018 the Department of Interior announced publication of a Draft Proposed Program (DPP) in support of the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program), as well as a Notice of Intent (NOI) to develop a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).
In order to obtain public input for these two documents, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has been holding public meetings across the nation. The meeting scheduled for Augusta, Maine today from 4-7 p.m. at the Augusta, Civic Center 76 Community Drive, will take place as scheduled.
BOEM wants to encourage citizens to use their own judgment on travel conditions this afternoon but the BOEM staff will be present. Because conditions are expected to deteriorate throughout the evening, we encourage citizens to come as early as possible. The meeting was originally scheduled in early January but had to be postponed due to a lapse in Federal funding.
If anyone feels travel is not safe, we encourage them to visit our Virtual Meeting Room at www.boem.gov/virtual. The same information available at the live public meetings in available at this site.
We also encourage people who are not able to attend to provide comments on the Draft Proposed Program and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement by visiting www.regulations.gov. The link can be found through the BOEM site at https://www.boem.gov/National-Program-Comment/.