Feds to assess O&G on GoM habitats

A 2018 federal lawsuit against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service ended last week in a July 19 settlement that requires the agency to prepare a years-over-due assessment of the impacts of oil and gas development on federally protected species and critical habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the agreement, NMFS is to complete a legally-required (under the Endangered Species Act) biological (assessment) opinion by Nov 5. Under the Act, the fisheries service is required to gauge the impacts of federally authorized oil and gas operations on species listed as threatened and endangered, as well as habitat designated as critical. It’s been 12 years (2007) since the fisheries service did such an analysis of energy development in the GoM. The assessment was intended to cover a five-year period from 2007-12. Since that last assessment, there was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which poured an estimated 4.9M barrels of crude oil into the GoM. “We hope this long-overdue assessment will inject some accurate facts and science into the government’s offshore drilling decisions,” said Earthjustice attorney Chris Eaton. The suit was filed in Florida by Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf. (Source: Kallandish News 07/25/19) Kallanish Energy is a daily energy news publication offering coverage of the North America, South American, and European Oil and Gas markets, with focuses on Natural Gas, Unconventionals, Crude Oil.