Today, Defenders was joined by the Southern Environmental Law Center in filing a lawsuit challenging the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) complicity in the Gulf oil disaster and continued lax oversight of oil drilling operations, including its failure to require a thorough examination of spill risks from exploratory drilling operations like the Deepwater Horizon. The legal filing seeks to prohibit the MMS from continuing to exempt from environmental review new exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sierra Weaver, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife said, “As demonstrated by the continuing disaster in the Gulf, the magnitude of potential damage posed by risky offshore drilling operations is just too great to require anything less than close scrutiny by a competent and discerning agency. MMS should appreciate that as it oversees drilling projects off of U.S. shores, it holds the very health and safety of our oceans and coastal waters in its hands.”
Since the Deepwater explosion and spill and with no explanation, MMS authorized over 20 new categorical exclusions for exploratory oil drilling operations in the Gulf, at least eight of which would be at depths deeper than the Deepwater Horizon. The map below depicts the locations of these new authorizations.
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