The federal district court for the District of Maryland ruled that the 2020 biological opinion (BiOp) for oil and gas extraction in the Gulf of Mexico violated the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The court vacated the BiOp effective December 20, 2024 and remanded to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). This case had been stayed in August 2023 pursuant to an agreement pursuant to which the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management would implement measures to protect the Rice’s whale during a reinitiated consultation process. After oil and gas industry intervenor-defendants and the State of Louisiana <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/louisiana-v-haaland/">successfully challenged</a> the inclusion of two of the measures in Lease Sale 261 in the federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana, the stay was lifted in January 2024. The court’s decision vacating the BiOp found that the BiOp underestimated the risk and harms of oil spills to protected species; that the jeopardy analysis improperly assumed that the Rice’s whale and Gulf sturgeon populations remained as large as they were before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; that the “reasonably prudent alternative” addressed only two stressors likely to jeopardize the Rice’s whale; and that the incidental take statement failed to recognize oil spill take as incidental take and did not rationally quantify the number of listed species taken by vessel strikes. The court said it was not necessary to reach certain arguments made by the plaintiffs, including two climate change-related arguments: (1) that historical spill data used by NMFS did not account for increased risk of a catastrophic spill due to factors that included climate change and (2) that NMFS failed to properly account for climate change in its jeopardy analyses.

Challenge to programmatic biological opinion governing oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sierra Club v. National Marine Fisheries Service

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Federal Court Vacated Biological Opinion for Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Development

Filed

United States of America

Maryland

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Codes and standards are regulatory instruments that specify minimum standards to protect health and safety. This ranges from performance standards, which prescribe outcomes while allowing flexibility to achieve compliance, to the more prescriptive approach of technology-specific standards.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society—improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Electricity generation from devices driven by the movement of salt water, differences in saltwater temperatures, or salinity gradients.

Kinetic energy of airflow transformed into useful energy, mostly electrical energy.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

Jobs that contribute to preserving or restoring the environment. We include jobs which require a high amount of green skills or which spend much of their time on green activities, as well as jobs transforming polluting industries.

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

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This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Federal Court Vacated Biological Opinion for Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Development

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance