US must do more to protect Gulf of Mexico drilling species: judge By Reuters

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge at the urging of environmental groups rejected an assessment by a federal agency that governs how endangered and threatened marine species should be protected from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, ruled Monday that the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service’s so-called “biological opinion” was flawed and did not adequately address the risks the species face from the spill. oil and ship strikes.

The assessment was issued in 2020 during the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump and was legally required to conduct oil and gas exploration and drilling.

The judge, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the assessment violated the Endangered Species Act. She blamed it on assuming that an oil spill like the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon in 2010 would not happen.

Boardman gave the agency until Dec. 20 to either complete a new opinion or “plan for future changes,” citing the risk that its decision, if implemented immediately, “would disrupt oil and gas activity in the Gulf without mitigating necessarily the dangers to the listed species. .”

The decision drew praise from environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, which in a lawsuit filed in 2020 argued that more protections are needed for whales, sea turtles and other endangered species.

“The court’s decision states that the government cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the persistent and widespread damage that offshore oil and gas development is causing to wildlife,” Chris. Eaton (NYSE: ), an attorney for the Earthjustice plaintiffs, said in a statement.

The Fisheries Service did not respond to a request for comment.

Three oil industry trade groups, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Ocean Industries Association and the EnergGeo Alliance, intervened in the lawsuit to defend the opinion alongside the oil major. Chevron (NYSE: ).

In a joint statement, the trade groups warned of “disruptive consequences” for the US economy if a new biological opinion is not developed in time and said issuing it should be of the “highest priority”.

The Biden administration last year tried to reduce a Gulf of Mexico oil and gas auction by 6 million acres to reduce conflicts with the habitat of the endangered Rice whale. But the oil and gas industry and the state of Louisiana successfully sued to expand the auction.