Notice of Availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for Bull Mountains Mine No. 1, Federal Mining Plan for Federal Lease MTM-97988Amendment 3

Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.

Notice of availability of the final environmental impact statement and record of decision.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is publishing this notice to announce that it has prepared a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for Signal Peak Energy's (SPE) Federal Mining Plan Modification Amendment 3 for Federal Lease MTM-97988 (the Project). OSMRE prepared this FEIS to address the deficiencies identified in the October 14, 2022, order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, regarding OSMRE's 2018 Environmental Assessment (EA).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will also publish a notice of availability in the Federal Register . OSMRE has issued a single document that consists of a FEIS and ROD. OSMRE is not requiring a 30-day waiting period before issuing the ROD for this project because it is not required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) rescinded the NEPA implementing regulations containing that requirement, and the Department of the Interior's (Department's) NEPA implementing regulations do not contain any independent requirement for a 30-day waiting period.