At the request of environmental groups, a US judge has rejected a federal agency’s assessment of how to protect endangered and threatened marine species from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Monday in Greenbelt, Maryland, Judge Deborah Boardman ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Services’ “biological opinion” was flawed and did not adequately consider the risk of oil spills and ship strikes.
The assessment was released in 2020 under former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration and was legally required for oil and gas exploration and drilling to be conducted.
The judge, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the assessment violated the Endangered Species Act. She criticized the assessment for assuming that an oil spill like the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 would not occur.
Mrs. Boardman gave the agency until Dec. 20 to prepare a new announcement or “plan for future changes,” citing the risk that her decision, if implemented immediately, “disrupts oil and gas activities in the Gulf without necessarily reduce the dangers to the listed species.
The move was praised by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, which argued in a 2020 lawsuit that additional protections were needed for whales, sea turtles and other endangered species.
“The court’s ruling confirms that the government cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the widespread and ongoing harm that offshore oil and gas development is inflicting on wildlife,” said Chris Eaton, plaintiffs’ attorney at Earthjustice.
The Department of Fisheries did not respond to a request for comment.
Three oil industry trade groups, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Ocean Industries Association and the EnerGeo Alliance, had intervened in the lawsuit to defend the statement along with oil major Chevron.
In a joint statement, the trade groups warned of “disruptive consequences” for the US economy if a new biological opinion is not developed in a timely manner and said its release should be the “highest priority”.
Last year, Mr. Biden’s administration to cut 6 million acres of oil and gas auctions in the Gulf of Mexico to limit conflicts with the habitat of Rice’s whale, an endangered species. But the oil and gas industry and the state of Louisiana succeeded in getting the auction extended.