Some Issues Affecting Southern California Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sale 48

GAO was requested to review three specific aspects of the Southern California Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas lease Sale 48: (1) the use and impact of the Department of the Interior's (Interior) Environmental Studies Program on sale decisions, (2) the impact of resource reports in selecting tracts to lease, and (3) the rationale for using the sliding scale royalty bidding system in the sale rather than some other bidding alternative. About 13.2 million acres consisting of over 2,400 individual tracts comprise the Southern California OCS. Initially, all of them were considered for lease in Sale 48. Of the 55 tracts eventually receiving bids, 47 tracts, or 85 percent, were located in the Santa Barbara Channel.