The largest U.S. oil industry trade group is urging the Biden administration to take action to prevent a court order from shutting down oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico.
The American Petroleum Institute sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Friday warning that a federal judge’s recent decision to toss out NOAA Fisheries’ evaluation of how offshore oil and gas development affects marine mammals could create a “bureaucratic bottleneck.”
The quandary is linked to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland’s decision last month to strike down NOAA’s 2020 biological opinion on how the oil industry affects sea turtles, the endangered Rice’s whale and other animals. Judge Deborah Boardman said the agency underestimated the potential harm from oil spills to protected species.
Boardman gave NOAA until Dec. 20 to replace the biological opinion, which underpins much of the nation’s offshore oil and gas activity, before the current document is no longer valid. The agency has told the court that it will likely miss the deadline.
