US must do more to protect species from Gulf of Mexico drilling: judge

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge at the urging of environmental groups has thrown out an assessment by a federal agency governing how endangered and threatened marine species should be protected from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Monday ruled the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Services' so-called "biological opinion" was flawed and did not adequately address risks species face from oil spills and vessel strikes.

The assessment was issued in 2020 during Republican former President Donald Trump's administration and was legally necessary for oil and gas exploration and drilling to be conducted.

The judge, appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the assessment violated the Endangered Species Act. She faulted it for assuming an oil spill like the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon one in 2010 would not occur.

Boardman gave the agency until Dec. 20 to either complete a new opinion or "plan for the changes ahead," citing the risk that her decision if implemented immediately would "disrupt oil and gas activity in the Gulf without necessarily mitigating the dangers to listed species."

The decision drew praise from environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, who in a lawsuit filed in 2020 argued more safeguards were needed for imperiled whales, sea turtles, and other species.

"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," Chris Eaton, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at Earthjustice, said in a statement.

The fisheries service did not respond to a request for comment.

Three oil industry trade groups, American Petroleum Institute, the National Ocean Industries Association and the EnerGeo Alliance, had intervened in the lawsuit to defend the opinion alongside oil major Chevron.

The trade groups in a joint statement warned of "disruptive consequences" to the U.S. economy if a new biological opinion was not timely developed and said its issuance should be of the "highest priority."

Biden's administration last year had sought to scale back an oil and gas auction in the Gulf of Mexico by 6 million acres to reduce conflicts with the endangered Rice's whale habitat. But the oil and gas industry and the state of Louisiana successfully sued to expand the auction.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)