Press Release | March 21, 2011

Dept. of Interior’s Finding of No Significant Impact from Deep Water Drilling after the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Statement by Derb Carter, senior attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center

“Based on the catastrophic damage of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a finding of no potential for significant impact from deepwater exploration is unsupportable and therefore illegal. A finding of no significant environmental impact from deep water drilling is just a dressed up categorical exclusion.

“The Department of the Interior has failed to complete a comprehensive environmental impact statement on deepwater drilling since the BP disaster almost a year ago. Until a comprehensive environmental review of the risks of deep water drilling in light of the oil spill is complete, no exploration plans can be approved in deep waters of the Gulf without violating the National Environmental Policy Act.”

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The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 120 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.

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