Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf-Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement</SUBAGY> <CFR>30 CFR Part 250</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket ID: BSEE-2025-0001; EEEE500000-256E1700D2-ET1SF0000.EAQ000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1014-AA62</RIN> <SUBJECT>Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf—Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustment</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Department of the Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This final rule adjusts the maximum daily civil monetary penalty amount contained in the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) regulations for violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance. The civil penalty inflation adjustment, using a 1.02598 multiplier, accounts for 1 year of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from October 2023 to October 2024. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective on September 12, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Janine Marie Tobias, Safety and Enforcement Division, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, (202) 208-4657 or by email: <E T="03">regs@bsee.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background and Legal Authority</HD> The OCSLA, at 43 U.S.C. 1350(b)(1), directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to adjust the OCSLA maximum daily civil penalty amount at least once every 3 years to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to account for inflation. On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (sec. 701 of Pub. L. 114-74) (FCPIA of 2015). The FCPIA of 2015 requires Federal agencies to adjust the amount of civil monetary penalties found in their regulations with an initial “catch-up” adjustment through rulemaking, if warranted, and then to make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation. The purpose of these adjustments is to maintain the deterrent effect of civil penalties and to further the policy goals of the underlying statutes. Agencies were required to publish the first annual inflation adjustments in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> no later than January 15, 2017, and to publish annual inflation adjustments no later than January 15 of each subsequent year. BSEE last updated the maximum daily civil penalty amounts in BSEE's regulations for OCSLA violations by a final rule published and effective on March 14, 2024. ( <E T="03">See</E> 89 FR 18540). Consistent with OMB guidance, BSEE's final rule implemented the inflation adjustments required by the FCPIA of 2015 through October 2023. The OMB Memorandum M-25-02“(Implementation of Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2025, Pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015;” (available at <E T="03">https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/M-25-02.pdf</E> ) explains agency responsibilities for: identifying applicable penalties and performing the annual adjustment; publishing revisions to regulations to implement the adjustment in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> <E T="03">;</E> applying adjusted penalty levels; and performing agency oversight of inflation adjustments. BSEE is promulgating this final rule for the 2025 inflation adjustment of OCSLA maximum daily civil penalties pursuant to the provisions of the FCPIA of 2015 and OMB's guidance. A proposed rule is not required because the FCPIA of 2015 expressly exempted the annual inflation adjustments implemented pursuant to the FCPIA of 2015 from notice and comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553. Specifically, the FCPIA of 2015 states that agencies “shall adjust civil monetary penalties . . . notwithstanding Section 553 of the Administrative Procedure Act.” (FCPIA of 2015 at sec. 4(b)(2)). OMB Memorandum M-25-02 reinforces this exemption from notice and comment rulemaking: “This means that the notice and comment process the APA generally requires— <E T="03">i.e.</E> notice, an opportunity for comment, and a delay in effective date—is not required for agencies to issue regulations implementing the annual adjustment.” M-25-02 at p. 4. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Calculation of Adjustments</HD> In accordance with the FCPIA of 2015 and the guidance provided in OMB Memorandum M-25-02, BSEE has calculated the necessary inflation adjustment for the maximum daily civil monetary penalty amount in 30 CFR 250.1403 for violations of OCSLA. The previous OCSLA civil penalty inflation adjustment accounted for inflation through October 2023. The required annual civil penalty inflation adjustment promulgated through this rule accounts for inflation through October 2024. Annual inflation adjustments are based on the percent change between the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the October preceding the date of the adjustment, and the prior year's October CPI-U. Consistent with the guidance in OMB Memorandum M-25-02, BSEE divided the October 2024 CPI-U by the October 2023 CPI-U to calculate the multiplying factor. In this case, the October 2024 CPI-U (315.664) divided by the October 2023 CPI-U (307.671) is 1.02598. OMB Memorandum M-25-02 confirms that this is the proper multiplier. (OMB Memorandum M-25-02 at 2, n.4). The FCPIA of 2015 requires that BSEE adjust the OCSLA maximum daily civil penalty amount for inflation using the applicable 2025 multiplier (1.02598). Accordingly, BSEE multiplied the existing OCSLA maximum daily civil penalty amount ($54,352) by 1.02598 to arrive at the new maximum daily civil penalty amount ($55,764.07). The FCPIA of 2015 requires that the resulting amount be rounded to the nearest $1.00. Accordingly, the adjusted OCSLA maximum daily civil penalty for 2025 is $55,764. The adjusted penalty amount takes effect immediately upon publication of this rule. Pursuant to the FCPIA of 2015, the increase in the OCSLA maximum daily civil penalty amount applies to civil penalties assessed after the date the increase takes effect, even when the associated violation(s) predates such increase. Consistent with the provisions of OCSLA and the FCPIA of 2015, this rule adjusts the following maximum civil monetary penalty per day per violation as follows: <GPOTABLE COLS="5" OPTS="L2,nj,tp0,i1" CDEF="s40,r50,10,10,10"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">CFR citation</CHED> <CHED H="1">Description of the penalty</CHED> <ENT I="01">30 CFR 250.1403</ENT> <ENT>Failure to comply per-day, per-violation</ENT> <ENT>$54,352</ENT> <ENT>1.02598</ENT> <ENT>$55,764</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> This rulemaking does not address any updates to the maximum civil penalty amount for Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act (FOGRMA) violations. As stated in 30 CFR 250.1453, the maximum civil penalty amount for each day of uncorrected FOGRMA violations is specified in 30 CFR 1241.52. Please refer to 30 CFR 1241.52 for the current FOGRMA maximum civil penalty amounts. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Procedural Requirements</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Regulatory Planning and Review (E.O. 12866, 14094, and 13563)</HD> Executive Order (E.O.) 12866 provides that the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will review all significant rules. OIRA has determined that this rule is not significant. ( <E T="03">See</E> OMB Memorandum M-25-02 at 3-4). E.O. 13563 reaffirms the principles of E.O. 12866 while calling for improvements in the Nation's regulatory system to promote predictability, to reduce uncertainty, and to use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. E.O. 13563 directs agencies to consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public where these approaches are relevant, feasible, and consistent with regulatory objectives. E.O. 13563 further emphasizes that regulations must be based on the best available science and that the rulemaking process must allow for public participation and an open exchange of ideas. We have developed this rule in a manner consistent with these requirements, to the extent permitted by statute. <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Regulatory Flexibility Act</HD> The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) requires an agency to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis for rules unless the agency certifies that the rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The RFA applies only to rules for which an agency is required to first publish a proposed rule. ( <E T="03">See</E> 5 U.S.C. 603(a) and 604(a)). The FCPIA of 2015 expressly exempts these annual inflation adjustments from the requirement to publish a proposed rule for notice and comment. ( <E T="03">See</E> FCPIA of 2015 at § 4(b)(2); OMB Memorandum M-25-02 at 4). Thus, the RFA does not apply to this rulemaking. <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act</HD> This rule is not a major rule under 5 U.S.C. 804(2), the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. This rule: (1) Does not have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) Will not cause a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; and (3) Does not have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</HD> This rule d ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 15k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━