https://foe.org/news/court-orders-govt-protect-gulf-whales/
"GREENBELT, MD — The United States District Court for the District of Maryland
yesterday struck down a flawed federal agency assessment that governs how
endangered and threatened marine species should be protected from Gulf of
Mexico offshore oil and gas drilling.
The National Marine Fisheries Service prepared the required assessment, known
as a biological opinion, under the Endangered Species Act. The opinion is
required to ensure that Gulf fossil fuel exploration and drilling will not
jeopardize endangered and threatened species. The biological opinion was issued
in April 2020.
“The court’s ruling affirms that the government cannot continue to turn a blind
eye to the widespread, persistent harms that offshore oil and gas development
inflicts on wildlife,” said Chris Eaton, Senior Attorney with the
Earthjustice’s Oceans Program. “This decision means the Fisheries Service must
comply with the law to put in place meaningful safeguards for the Gulf’s rarest
marine species.”
Earthjustice filed suit in 2020 challenging the Gulf biological opinion on
behalf of Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the
Earth, and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The groups argued the biological
opinion did not adequately evaluate the potential for future oil spills in the
Gulf of Mexico and did not require sufficient safeguards for imperiled whales,
sea turtles, and other endangered and threatened marine species from industrial
offshore drilling operations.
The court found the biological opinion violated the law in multiple ways. Among
other flaws, the opinion wrongly assumed a catastrophic oil spill like the 2010
BP Deepwater Horizon will not occur despite the Service’s own analysis finding
such a spill can be expected. It assumed Gulf wildlife populations were
unaffected by the BP spill despite the evidence to the contrary. It failed to
protect the Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale – one of the world’s rarest whales –
from extinction as a result of oil and gas activity. And it lacked legally
required mechanisms to monitor harm to species.
The continued existence of the Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale, in particular, was
at stake in this case. The species is the only large whale species that lives
year-round in North American waters. Fewer than 100 of these whales exist. The
primary cause of the whales’ current plight is oil and gas development. The
Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale lost an estimated 20 percent of its population as a
result of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. Pressure by the oil
industry to drill deeper and farther from the coastline makes the chances of a
catastrophic spill worse.
“The court’s ruling requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to fix its
flawed analysis of the effects of offshore fossil fuel development on
endangered whales, rare turtles, and vital Gulf of Mexico ecosystems upon which
these species’ survival depends,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Devorah
Ancel. “Now the agency has a chance to get the biological opinion right and
properly evaluate the devastating impact offshore drilling and exploration has
on the Gulf’s protected endangered and threatened marine species. These
species, including the critically endangered Rice’s whale, need protection from
the daily costs and catastrophic risks associated with offshore oil drilling.”"
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/light-into-lightning/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
