Challenging Offshore Oil Drilling In The Gulf Of Mexico

The federal government is illegally doling out deepwater drilling permits to big oil companies without requiring them to submit plans that detail how they would respond to a major spill. Earthjustice is fighting this negligent practice in federal court.

Clients

Regional Office / Program

Case Overview

BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster still reeks: throughout the Gulf ecosystem, wildlife is suffering and local economies are limping. The tragedy wiped out beloved wetlands and beaches and might have damaged Gulf fisheries forever.

And yet, for all the complexity that has surfaced in the wake of the spill, the lead up to BP’s epic blow-out was stunningly simple. The multinational oil giant skated through the federal permitting process because the government allowed it to skirt a law that requires oil companies to disclose in their exploratory drilling plans both a well blow-out scenario and a worst case scenario response plan.

This practice has become the norm—oil giants are being given the rights to drill in risky waters without adhering to the letter of the law. Earthjustice filed a lawsuit that asks the Court of Appeals to review the government’s policy of exempting oil companies from complying with the law as well as any recently approved oil exploration plans that fail to include the required blow-out scenarios. Though we’ve garnered victories, including an agreement to require such scenarios for new wells, negligence still reigns in the regulation of offshore oil drilling. Earthjustice continues its fight.

A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon / BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico on June 9, 2010.
A controlled burn of oil from the Deepwater Horizon / BP oil spill sends towers of fire hundreds of feet into the air over the Gulf of Mexico on June 9, 2010. (Petty Officer First Class John Masson / U.S. Coast Guard)

Case Updates

Offshore oil and gas platforms are a common site in the Gulf of Mexico, including this one off the Louisiana coast.
August 25, 2023 Press Release

Lawsuit Challenges Massive Offshore Lease Sale for Failing to Properly Consider Gulf Communities and Climate

The lease sale is scheduled close to release of Five-Year Program, which may include 10+ additional offshore oil lease sales

August 25, 2023 Document

Complaint: Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261

Plaintiffs challenge the unlawful decision by Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland to hold Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261 based on insufficient and arbitrary environmental analyses, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

July 11, 2023 Document

Gulf and Environmental Groups Call on Interior Department to End Routine Fast-Tracking of Offshore Oil Drilling Projects

Petition outlines how decades-old use of “categorical exclusion” allows companies to skip over risk assessments in oil and gas “sacrifice zone”