(The Center Square) — The Trump administration’s plan to allow more oil and gas exploration off the Gulf Coast has received a legal challenge from environmental groups.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeks to halt a Dec. 10 offshore oil and gas lease sale covering 80 million acres. The sale is the first of 30 required in the Gulf through 2040 under a bill signed by President Donald Trump in July.
According to the suit, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed to study the environmental and health effects of the sale and consider alternatives. The requirements are part of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act.
Additionally, the suit says oil and gas operations would hurt millions of people who live along the Gulf Coast, as well as its ecosystems and the endangered Rice’s whale. The suit noted the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history resulted from the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf.
The plaintiffs want the court to halt the lease sale until the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management complies with the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment prior to publication from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Plaintiffs named in the suit include Healthy Gulf, Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council.
