Nine environmental organizations have sued US Commerce Sec. Wilbur L. Ross and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on Dec. 11 after NMFS issued incidental harassment authorizations on Nov. 30 to five contractors seeking to conduct the first seismic surveys since the 1980s for oil and gas on the US Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OGJ Online, Nov. 30, 2018).
The Sierra Club, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other national organizations were joined by groups from North Carolina and South Carolina in their filing in US District Court for South Carolina. They charged that NMFS violated the 1973 Endangered Species Act by deciding, contrary to the best available science, that the offshore seismic tests would not harm the North Atlantic right whale and other threatened and endangered species in the waters.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
