Government Approval of New Deepwater Oil Drilling Ignores Gulf Disaster

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Groups File in Court After Regulators Claim No Potential for Significant Harm From Deepwater Drilling in Wake of Gulf Disaster

The federal government illegally authorized new deepwater drilling by claiming that risky operations will cause no significant harm to the environment despite last year’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said four environmental groups in a court filing today. The coalition challenged government approval of Shell’s plan to conduct new deepwater exploratory drilling off Alabama’s coast in waters 2,000 feet deeper than the BP Deepwater Horizon even though regulators acknowledge that the operations may result in an oil spill 10 times bigger than last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.

“Finding that drilling in waters far deeper than the Deepwater Horizon site has no significant impact when we know how damaging last year’s spill was defies common sense and echoes the irresponsible attitudes that preceded the disaster,” said Catherine Wannamaker, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center who represents the environmental groups in court. “The Deepwater Horizon oil spill that is still impacting the Gulf and many lives along the coast cannot and should not be swept under the rug for oil-company convenience and profit.”

After a cursory 30-day review, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement determined that there would be no significant impact from new exploratory deepwater drilling by Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. in about 7,200 feet of water. The worst-case scenario oil spill detailed in the plan is as much as 405,000 barrels (17 million gallons) of oil a day for up to 128 days, which could result in a spill of 45 million barrels (1.89 billion gallons) of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BOEMRE’s decision comes about a year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, which spilled more than 4.9 million barrels (200 million gallons) of oil.

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