Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

Center for Biological Diversity and a Duke University ecology professor filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2018 biological opinion that considered the effects of Gulf of Mexico offshore oil and gas activities on species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The plaintiffs alleged that the biological opinion, relying on guidance in a 2008 memorandum opinion by the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Interior, omitted any analysis of climate harms from offshore oil and gas development. The complaint alleged that the federal oil and gas activities analyzed in the biological opinion “comprise one of the nation’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions,” with an estimated 320 million tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually between now and 2030. The plaintiffs claimed that the opinion unlawfully “fails to quantify greenhouse gas emissions, ignores climate change as part of the environmental baseline, and, most importantly, omits analysis of the impacts of greenhouse gas pollution on threatened and endangered species and their critical habitat.” The plaintiffs also alleged that the biological opinion failed to analyze and minimize other harms. In addition to their claim regarding the biological opinion, the plaintiffs also alleged that the FWS’s delay in responding to a March 2022 rulemaking petition was unreasonable. The petition requested that the FWS amend its Endangered Species Act regulations to specify that greenhouse gas emissions must be considered during the consultation process.