Healthy Gulf v. Bernhardt

Three environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia against the Secretary of the Interior and other federal defendants asserting that they violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act in their decision to hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico (Lease Sale 252). The plaintiffs alleged that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) significantly underestimated the impacts of Lease Sale 52, including by using an incorrect royalty rate to forecast levels of oil and gas exploration, development, and production. They also contended that BOEM arbitrarily assumed that the same impacts would result from the proposed lease sale and the no action alternative. The complaint alleged that oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico cause numerous impacts to the environment, including by contributing significantly to climate change due to greenhouse gases emitted by exploration, development, and production operations and due to the burning of the oil and gas produced in the Gulf.