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Gulf Restoration Network v. Haaland
Gulf Restoration Network v. Haaland ↗
20-5179D.C. Cir.4 entries
Filing Date
Type
Action Taken
Document
Summary
08/30/2022
Decision
Summary judgment for defendants reversed in part and case remanded to the district court with instructions to remand it to the agency for further consideration; administrative orders left in place.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals remanded a challenge to the environmental review of two Gulf of New Mexico oil and gas lease sales to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for consideration of a Government Accountability Office report that found deficiencies in enforcement of safety and environmental requirements. The D.C. Circuit declined to vacate the leases, supplemental environmental impact statement, or records of decision. The court also rejected the petitioners’ other arguments, including claims that BOEM failed to consider a true no-action alternative in which no leasing occurred and that BOEM should have considered potential changes to rules intended to reduce offshore drilling risks.
Gulf Restoration Network v. Zinke ↗
1:18-cv-01674D.D.C.2 entries
Filing Date
Type
Action Taken
Document
Summary
04/21/2020
Decision
Federal defendants' and intervenor-defendants' motions for summary judgment granted.
A federal district court in the District of Columbia ruled that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) fulfilled its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in connection with two offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. First, the court found that BOEM considered a “true” no action alternative, rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that it was improper to assume that future leasing would result in the same effects under the no action alternative. Second, the court was not persuaded that BOEM’s hard look at impacts was undermined by reliance on safety rules that were being partially repealed and that were allegedly enforced inadequately. Third, the court rejected the argument that a supplemental environmental impact statement was necessary due to a reduction in royalty rate that the plaintiffs argued would result in higher levels of development and production than were assessed.
07/16/2018
Complaint
Complaint filed.
Gulf Restoration Network, Sierra Club, and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and other defendants to challenge decisions to hold offshore lease sales for oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiffs asserted that the defendants relied on “arbitrary” environmental analyses in violation of NEPA and the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint alleges two “fundamental defects” in the NEPA analysis: (1) an “irrational reliance on the false assumptions that preexisting, safer policies would remain in place,” even though the Department of the Interior had begun to implement repeals of drilling safety regulations and reductions in royalty rates, and (2) an assumption that the same projected environmental effects would occur even if the lease sales were not held. The complaint alleged that oil and gas development in the Gulf contributes significantly to climate change through emissions emitted by exploration, development, and production operations, as well as downstream combustion.