WASHINGTON (CN) — Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department on Friday to block a planned oil and gas lease sale that would make over 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico available to fossil fuel companies.
The suit, brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, Bayou City Waterkeeper and Healthy Gulf, accuses the department of failing to take a “hard look” at the potential impacts of such a sale, such as higher emissions, potential oil spills and higher risks to endangered species in the Gulf.
Earthjustice notes in the suit that while President Joe Biden has publicly acknowledged the existential threat posed by climate change, the decision to lease out more oil drilling in the gulf would lead to the production of over 1 billion barrels of oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next 50 years.
According to the federal agencies’ own environmental reports, the sale would lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions equal to 360 million metric tons.
The groups note the decision comes off a summer of record-breaking heat across the country, where cities across the country faced grueling heatwaves — Phoenix endured 30 consecutive days over 110 degrees — and ocean temperatures off the coast of Florida exceeded 100 degrees, endangering marine life and causing widespread coral bleaching.
Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed her shock the decision could still move forward, even after July was named the hottest month on Earth in recorded history.
“It’s mind-boggling that in this summer of deadly fossil fuel-driven record heat, fires and flooding the Biden administration couldn’t be bothered to look carefully at the damage this lease sale will cause to people, endangered wildlife and the climate,” Monsell said in a statement. “Across the country we’re seeing lethal wildfires, boiling ocean temperatures and mass coral die-offs, all caused or exacerbated by a climate unnaturally warmed by fossil fuel emissions. We’ve got to stop letting oil and gas companies make it worse by drilling in our oceans.”
There are 20 species listed on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Threatened and Endangered Species List for the Gulf of Mexico, which includes species like the giant manta ray, the leatherback sea turtle, the rough cactus coral and the sperm whale.
Earthjustice made special note of the Rice’s whale — a species of baleen whale endemic to the northern Gulf of Mexico — that with an estimated population of just 50 is one of the most endangered marine mammals in the world. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in 2010 led to a 22% decrease of the Rice’s whale population.
Following a settlement agreement this week between Earthjustice and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the feds will take steps to protect the Rice’s whale from potential damages.
The agency agreed to exclude the whale’s habitat from any future lease sale, require oil and gas leaseholders to reduce the risk of vessel strikes — future sales will include a 10-knot speed limit — and notify leaseholders of the risk their ships pose to the animal.
However, if the challenged sale goes through, the environmentalists say other species could be put at an even higher risk of extinction thanks to higher shipping traffic throughout the rest of the gulf and the still present threat of oil spills with a yearly average of 2,100 oil and chemical spills.
The groups say the agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act by considering alternate sections of the gulf to put up for sale only, rather than a scaled-back option that would have a much smaller impact.
The lawsuit reveals a stark contrast between promises Biden made on the campaign trail — “no more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period, period” — and his actions in the White House, where his administration approved more oil and gas drilling permits in his first two years (over 6,900) than the Trump administration in the same period (6,172).
In 2022, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Shell together recorded over $1 trillion in profits, thanks in part to federal permits.
The sale at issue in the lawsuit is set to be held by Sept. 30.
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