By Trimmel Gomes, Florida News Connection
A coalition of environmental groups has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging its revocation of President Joe Biden’s protections for 625 million acres of federal waters from offshore drilling.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Alaska, argued the Trump administration’s action is illegal and threatens coastal communities, ecosystems and marine life.
Christian Wagley, coastal organizer for the advocacy coalition Healthy Gulf, emphasized the importance of protecting Florida’s coastline from drilling.
“The water is clean, our beaches are clean and Florida’s economy really depends on that,” Wagley asserted. “That’s kind of the quintessential experience in Florida is being able to go to the beach and have the clean white sand and blue-green water and that would be directly threatened by expanded oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.”
The legal challenge focuses on Biden’s decision in his final days in office to withdraw vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf — including parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and eastern Gulf of Mexico — from oil and gas leasing and drilling. President Donald Trump argued boosting fossil fuel production is essential to meeting energy demand and maintaining U.S. leadership in global energy markets.
Environmental groups, however, contend the move is illegal and threatens ecosystems, coastal communities and the transition to clean energy.
Devorah Ancel, Environmental Law Program senior attorney for the Sierra Club, said the move also violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
“That is an illegal action,” Ancel contended. “The law only allows presidents to withdraw those areas for protection. It doesn’t allow presidents to revoke or cancel those withdrawals of previous presidents.”
The lawsuit highlighted the ecological and economic risks of offshore drilling, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Trump administration is attempting to rename the Gulf of America, where 99% of U.S. offshore drilling occurs. Ancel pointed to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a stark example of the dangers posed by offshore drilling.
Florida News Connection is a bureau of the Public News Service. The Sierra Club contributes to its fund for reporting on climate change/air quality, energy policy, the environment and environmental justice. Banner photo: An oil drilling platform off the coast of California (iStock image).
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