The Interior Department rescinded Biden administration guidance Thursday to help protect endangered Rice’s whales from oil and gas drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The decision to roll back the August 2023 “notice to lessees and operators” (NTL) concerning the highly endangered whales comes three months before a court-ordered deadline for NOAA to complete a revised biological opinion examining how offshore oil and gas exploration and production affects the whale.
An earlier biological opinion was rescinded by a U.S. district court judge in Maryland on the grounds it violated the Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedures Act. Judge Deborah Boardman, a nominee of former President Joe Biden, gave NOAA until May 21 to revise its biological opinion. She did not restrict ongoing oil and gas activities in the Gulf.
NOAA believes that fewer than 100 Rice’s whales remain in the Gulf of Mexico, the body of water President Donald Trump has renamed the Gulf of America.
