A federal judge has granted a 5-month extension to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to update a key environmental assessment, averting a potential shutdown of U.S. oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
The order, issued by Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Oct. 21, means that drilling activities can continue while NMFS revises its 2020 biological opinion, which governs the impact of offshore fossil fuel extraction on endangered species.
Boardman’s earlier Aug. 19 ruling found the 2020 biological opinion to be in violation of both the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The judge allowed the flawed biological opinion to remain operative until Dec. 20, 2024, to give federal agencies time to prepare a new one that offered more protections for endangered species….