Suit: Feds ignore risk of huge spills to endangered species
October 21, 2020 9:47AM AKDT
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Environmental groups have asked a federal court to toss out the Trump administration’s assessment of how oil and gas activity could affect endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico. A lawsuit filed Wednesday says the report dismisses the likelihood of another catastrophic oil spill like BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010. It asks a court in Maryland to make the National Marine Fisheries Service write a new report, called a biological opinion. An outside expert says any trial is likely to be a long one, given the size of the Gulf and the number of species involved.
