US conservation groups sue Trump administration over offshore drilling proposal News
The Trump White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US conservation groups sue Trump administration over offshore drilling proposal

US conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, claiming the administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by issuing an executive order reversing withdrawals of oil and gas leases.

The conservationists filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Alaska, alleging that the protected waters affected by the Trump administration’s order have extensive marine diversity that provides scientific benefits. The conservationists also noted that the deafening sounds of surveys and drilling activities injure marine life and their habitat and that the development of just one oil lease would create a 75 percent chance of an oil spill greater than 1,000 barrels. Pollution from air and watercraft around the areas could also cause significant harm, even if an oil spill were not to occur in the region. The conservationists further alleged that surveys and drilling also harm commercial fish products that would affect fish-catch rates and ultimately harm the economy.

Oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, Kristen Monsell, stated: 

Trump’s putting our oceans, marine wildlife and coastal communities at risk of devastating oil spills and we need the courts to rein in his utter contempt for the law … Offshore oil drilling is destructive from start to finish. Opening up more public waters to the oil industry for short-term gain and political points is a reprehensible and irresponsible way to manage our precious ocean ecosystems.

President Trump issued an executive order on January 20 that repealed a decision by former President Joe Biden’s administration to protect large areas of ocean from offshore drilling. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), Biden withdrew certain offshore areas from oil and gas leasing.

President Barack Obama also originally protected the Chukchi, Beaufort, and Northern Bering seas in Alaska, as well as 26 major canyons and canyon complexes off the Atlantic coast. During his first term as president, Trump tried to undo the protections implemented by Obama and allow offshore drilling. A federal court, however, invalidated his attempt, finding that the president does not have the power to undo a former president’s OCSLA protections.

 

 

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