News | May 17, 2010
SELC Files Suit to Stop Lax Federal Oversight of Offshore Drilling
On May 17, 2010, SELC and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit challenging the Minerals Management Service for its complicity in the Gulf oil disaster and its failure to require a thorough examination of spill risks from exploratory drilling operations like British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon. Our legal filing seeks to overturn environmental review exemptions MMS has issued for more than 20 exploratory wells since the April explosion that destroyed the BP rig, and it seeks to prohibit the agency from continuing to exempt new exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf from an in-depth environmental analysis, which is required by federal law.