Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in the District of Columbia alleging that the Secretary of the Interior and the directors of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement were violating NEPA and the Administrative Procedure Act in their management of offshore oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico. CBD alleged that new information showed that offshore oil and gas decommissioning was not occurring within required timeframes or in accordance with requirements, leaving idle infrastructure that posed environmental and safety risks, including risks of oil spills and risks of methane emissions contributing to climate change and increasing explosion risk. The complaint described the findings of a recent report that revealed that 2,700 wells and nearly 500 platforms were overdue for decommissioning in the Gulf of Mexico as of June 2023; that nearly 600 of the idle wells had not been temporarily plugged to prevent leaks before decommissioning; and that more than 800 idle wells had been unused for more than a decade. CBD contended that substantial changes to decommissioning had occurred since programmatic environmental assessments were prepared in 1987 and 2005, including the defendants permitting 97% of pipeline mileage in the Gulf of Mexico to remain on or beneath the seafloor. They also alleged that there were substantial new circumstances and information available about the risks posed by idle infrastructure and decommissioning in place, including information about methane emissions from unplugged and temporarily plugged wells. CBD asserted that the defendants could not continue to rely on the 1987 and 2005 assessments to approve decommissioning in place, time extensions, and other deviations from decommissioning requirements. CBD asked the court to require the defendants to complete, by a date certain, new NEPA analysis to supplement the programmatic analyses prepared in 1987 and 2005.

Lawsuit seeking to compel the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to conduct new environmental assessment of the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure.

Center for Biological Diversity v. Burgum

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Lawsuit Sought to Compel New Environmental Review of Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning

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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.

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

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

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

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

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.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

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.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

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

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.

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

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

Activities involving the catching, processing, and selling of fish for food, recreation, and industry.

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.

Geohazards are adverse geological phenomenon's that are capable of causing widespread damage or loss to property, life and the environment, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. Climate change can increase the frequency and severity of some geohazards, such as landslides, and soil erosion.

Lawsuit Sought to Compel New Environmental Review of Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning

Policy instrument

Risk

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance