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Show Chapter Eleven {The Outer Continental Shelf): 72. Complete authority over all activities on the Outer Continental Shelf should continue to be vested by statute in the Federal Government. Moreover, all Federal functions pertaining to that authority, including navigational safety, safety on or about structures and islands used for mineral activities, pollution control and supervision, mapping and charting, oceanographic and other scientific research, preservation and protection of the living resources of the sea, and occupancy uses of the Outer Continental Shelf, should be consolidated within the Government to the greatest possible degree. Page 188. 73. Protection of the environment from adverse effects of activities on the Federal Outer Continental Shelf is a matter of national concern and is a responsibility of the Federal Government. The Commission's recommendations concerning improved protection and enhancement of the environment generally require separate recognition in connection with activities on the Shelf, and agencies having resource management responsibility on the Shelf should be required by statute to review practices periodically and consider recommendations from all interested sources, including the Council on Environmental Quality. In addition, there must be a continuing statutory liability upon lessees for the cleanup of oil spills occasioned from drilling or production activities on Federal Outer Continental Shelf leases. Page 190. 74. Proposals to open areas of the Outer Continental Shelf to leasing, including both the call for nomination of tracts and the invitation to bid, as well as operational orders and waivers of order requirements should be published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each state adjacent to the area proposed for leasing or for which orders are promulgated. Where a state, on the recommendation of local interests or otherwise, believes that Outer Continental Shelf leasing may create environmental hazards, or that necessary precautionary measures may not be provided, or that natural preservation of an area is in the best interest of the public, then, at the state's request, a public hearing should be held and specific findings issued concerning the objections raised. Page 191. 75. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act should be amended to give the Secretary of the Interior authority for utilizing flexible methods of competitive sale. Flexible methods of pricing should be encouraged, rather than the present exclusive reliance on bonus bidding, plus a fixed royalty. In addition, the timing and size of lease sales, both of which are presently irregular, should be regularized. Furthermore, while discretion to reject bids should remain with the Secretary, this authority should be qualified to require that he state his reasons for rejection. Page 192. 76. To the extent that adjacent states can prove net burdens resulting from onshore or offshore operations, in connection with Federal mineral leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, compensatory impact payments should be authorized and negotiated. Page 193. 77. The Federal Government should undertake an expanded offshore program of collection and dissemination of basic geological and geophysical data. As part of that program, information developed under exploration permits should be fully disclosed to the Government in advance of Outer Continental Shelf lease sales. However, industry evaluations of raw data should be treated as proprietary and excluded from mandatory disclosure. Page 193. Chapter Twelve (Outdoor Recreation): 78. An immediate effort should be undertaken to identify and protect those unique areas of national significance that exist on the public lands. Page 198. 79. Recreation policies and programs on those public lands of less than national significance should be designed to meet needs identified by statewide recreation plans. Page 199. 80. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation should be directed to review, and empowered to disapprove, recreation proposals for public lands administered under general multiple-use policy if they are not in general conformity with statewide recreation plans. Page 202. 81. A general recreation land use fee, collected through sale of annual permits, should be required of all public land recreation users and, where feasible, additional fees should be charged for use of facilities constructed at Federal expense. Page 203. 82. Statutory guidelines should be established for resolving and minimizing conflicts among recreation uses and between outdoor recreation and other uses of public lands. Page 205. 83. The Federal role in assuming responsibility for public accommodations in areas of national significance should be expanded. The Federal Government should, in some instances, finance and construct adequate facilities with operation and maintenance left to concessioners. The security of investment afforded National Park Service concessioners by the Concessioner Act of 1965 should be extended to concessioners operating under comparable conditions elsewhere on the Federal public lands. Page 208. 84. Private enterprise should be encouraged to play a greater role in the development and management of intensive recreation use areas on those public 13 |