Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

On December 7, 2024, the federal district court stayed all filing deadlines in a case brought by Center for Biological Diversity and a Duke University ecology professor challenging the 2018 biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas activities. The lawsuit also asserted that FWS had unreasonably delayed in responding to a rulemaking petition that requested that FWS amend its Endangered Species Act regulations to specify that greenhouse gas emissions must be considered during the consultation process. The plaintiffs and federal defendants requested that the litigation be stayed based on FWS’s agreement to consider four issues—only “as is appropriate under governing laws and regulations”—in the Endangered Species Act consultation that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reinitiated with FWS a month before the filing of this lawsuit. The four issues concerned whether and the extent to which FWS is required to analyze effects on endangered and threatened species of large oil spills, sea level rise, and lighting on offshore platforms and infrastructure, and also whether and the extent to which greenhouse gas emissions, including downstream emissions, from the Bureaus’ proposed actions must be considered an “effect of the action.” FWS also agreed to respond to the portion of the rulemaking petition that proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act consultation regulations to guarantee that federal agencies consider the impact of their actions on climate change and climate-impacted species. FWS agreed to complete these actions by March 28, 2025.