Description: Challenge to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale covering more than 73 million acres of public waters.
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Healthy Gulf v. Haaland
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/21/2023 Motion to Intervene Download Motion for leave to intervene as a defendant filed by American Petroleum Institute. 04/10/2023 Reply Download Chevron filed reply in support of motion to intervene as a defendant and response to court's April 6, 2023 minute order. 03/22/2023 Motion to Intervene Download Motion to intervene as a defendant filed by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. On March 22, 2023, Chevron U.S.A. Inc moved for leave to intervene. Chevron noted that the Inflation Reduction Act stated that that the lease sale should be conducted “not later than March 31, 2023” and argued that this case “directly implicates” Chevron’s interests because it had “already expended substantial costs and efforts to prepare to participate” in the lease sale in reliance on it taking place. On March 29, BOEM announced that it had held the lease sale. 03/06/2023 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Environmental Groups Challenged NEPA Review for “Massive” Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Six environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia asserting that federal defendants violated NEPA and the Administrative Procedure Act when they decided to hold a Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale that offers more than 73 million acres of public waters for leasing, which the plaintiffs alleged would be one of the largest offshore lease sales in U.S. history. The complaint alleged that the final supplemental EIS prepared by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) failed to take a hard look at the lease sale’s impacts. With respect to climate change, the plaintiffs contended that BOEM relied on “problematic modeling and assumptions to conclude that this massive lease sale will result in only ‘slightly higher domestic emissions’ than not leasing at all, and further failed to consider the impacts of such fossil fuel development on climate goals and commitments,” including the lease sale’s impact on the remaining global carbon budget (“the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent that can be emitted without exceeding the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5℃ of warming above pre-industrial levels”). The plaintiffs also alleged that BOEM failed to consider climate impacts such as sea level rise, flooding, and increased storms on Gulf of Mexico communities and cumulative climate impacts of other Gulf oil and gas leasing and reasonably foreseeable oil and gas infrastructure projects. On March 22, 2023, Chevron U.S.A. Inc moved for leave to intervene. Chevron noted that the Inflation Reduction Act stated that that the lease sale should be conducted “not later than March 31, 2023” and argued that this case “directly implicates” Chevron’s interests because it had “already expended substantial costs and efforts to prepare to participate” in the lease sale in reliance on it taking place. On March 29, BOEM announced that it had held the lease sale.