New Lawsuit Challenges Secretary's Assumption that Large Oil Spills are Unlikely
On July 26, 2010, the Center for Biological Diversity filed another lawsuit challenging the Department of the Interior's regulation of offshore drilling, alleging that the Department failed to properly assess potential impacts on endangered and threatened species from large scale oil spills. The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, attacks the "policy" and "decisions" of the former Minerals Management Services (now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement) that exploration drilling poses de minimis risk to endangered and threatened species, and therefore is subject to a categorical exemption from full environmental review. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the use of such categorical exclusions for future drilling projects, and force the Department to conduct a "full and adequate" environmental analysis.
