Recently, the U.S. Department of the Interior declared
that it would perform an environmental impact assessment of hydraulic
fracturing in the Pacific Ocean under the terms of a settlement it has reached
with the Environmental Defense Center. The U.S. Department of the Interior also
agreed to suspend new permit applications off the coast of California until the
environmental effects of offshore hydraulic fracturing are better known.
Existing offshore drilling permits, however, will remain intact.
This settlement decision resolves a claim for declaratory and injunctive relief filed by the
Environmental Defense Center in March 2014 against the Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM). The Environmental Defense Center alleged that BSEE’s approval of 51
permits for well stimulation offshore California was unlawful under the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Administrative Procedure Act
(APA), and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).
In February 2015, the Center for Biological Diversity
brought an action against BSEE and BOEM arguing that “the Bureaus have
a pattern and practice of rubber-stamping permits to frack with no analysis of
the environmental impacts, no determination of whether such activities are
consistent with the plans governing oil development and production in the
Pacific Region or California’s Coastal Management Program, and no public
involvement.”
The environmental impact assessment is scheduled for
completion by May 28, 2016.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
02/08/2016
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