Shell Offshore Arctic Spill Response Plans Survive Appeal Over Species Risks, NEPA

摘要

Another attempt to delay or block exploratory oil drilling by Royal Dutch Shell Plc in U.S. Arctic waters failed June 11 when an appeals court ruled a federal regulator did not violate environmental laws in approving two spill response plans (Alaska Wilderness League v. Jewell, 9th Cir., No. 13-35866, 6/11/15). The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), an Interior Department agency, adhered to the Clean Water Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act when it approved the spill response plans for work in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled. A majority of the three-judge panel agreed with a district court that the Clean Water Act requirements for spill response plans, codified at 33 U.S.C. 1321(j)(5)(D) and (E), do not require Endangered Species Act consultations.