ELR Citation: 44 ELR 20243
No(s). 13-35835 (9th Cir. Nov 12, 2014)

The Ninth Circuit dismissed an oil company's Declaratory Judgment Act lawsuit against several environmental groups, seeking a declaration that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s approval of two oil spill response plans under OPA for Alaska’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas did not violate the APA. The company sought the declaration so it could conduct exploratory drilling without worrying that the environmental groups would seek to overturn the Bureau’s approval of the plans. The groups filed a motion to dismiss, arguing there was no case or controversy under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, and the Ninth Circuit agreed. Article III requires the existence of adverse legal interests arising from a legal claim, and that is absent from this case. The only entities with adverse legal interests under the APA are the Bureau and the environmental groups. The environmental groups were "aggrieved" by the approval of the company's oil spill response plans, and the Bureau is the federal agency responsible for their approval. The oil company, by contrast, does not have legal interests under the APA that are adverse to either the Bureau or the environmental groups. Because its plans were approved, the company was not "aggrieved" by the Bureau’s actions. The court, therefore, dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.