MEXICO CITY (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2025 biological opinion and incidental take statement for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of America.
The court held that the case is moot and that it lacks jurisdiction to proceed because the Endangered Species Committee exempted those activities from the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
On March 31, the Endangered Species Committee voted unanimously to exempt all Gulf of America oil and gas activities from the ESA, after the Secretary of War found that the exemption was necessary for reasons of national security. This is the first exemption the committee has granted on national security grounds. As the United States explained in its motion to dismiss, the exemption removed the underlying federal action from the ESA's requirements. With this exemption, the challenged biological opinion and incidental take statement retain no legal force, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
'The Endangered Species Committee's exemption reflects a judgment at the highest levels of government that producing American energy in the Gulf of America is essential to our national security,' said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. 'Today's decision clears away litigation that threatened development in the Gulf, in furtherance of President Donald Trump's directive to unleash American energy.'
The dismissal of lawsuit paves the way for energy development in Gulf of America, which is a critical hub for North American energy security, accounting for massive crude oil outputs and advancing massive new power generation projects.
A new report by the American Petroleum Institute and the National Ocean Industries Association forecasts that the region could produce more than 470,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2040, which would supplement the existing offshore Gulf production of nearly two million barrels per day.
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