ELR Citation: 55 ELR 20041
No(s). 23-cv-604 (APM) (D.D.C. Mar 27, 2025) (Mehta, J.)

A district court granted in part and denied in part summary judgment for environmental groups in a challenge to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM's) approval of a 2023 offshore oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. The groups argued BOEM's assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, harms to Rice's whale, environmental justice impacts, oil spill risks, and reasonable alternatives failed to provide the "hard look" required by NEPA. The court found BOEM reasonably contextualized the magnitude of its emissions estimates, that there were no deficiencies in its environmental justice analysis serious enough to defeat NEPA's goals, that it provided sufficient detail concerning oil spill risks to satisfy NEPA, and that its choice of alternatives, given time constraints and its aim of promoting oil, gas, and wind development in the Gulf of Mexico, was reasonable; but that the Bureau acted arbitrarily by failing to address NMFS' determination that the whale habitat extended into the western and central Gulf. It granted in part and denied in part summary judgment for the groups, and granted in part and denied in part BOEM's cross-motion.