Court allows environmental challenges to post-oil spill leases to proceed

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama late yesterday ruled that Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Environmental Law Center may pursue their claims that the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act in approving at least 221 oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill. The groups claim that the leases were approved without any environmental review that considered the disaster. More details are in the release.