Already under intense political pressure in a presidential election year, the Trump administration’s goal of opening more offshore areas to oil drilling will take a major legal hit as permits for Atlantic exploratory seismic surveys expire Nov. 30.
In a federal court conference Oct. 1, lawyers for the federal government and offshore exploration companies acknowledged that key permits to allow seismic surveys – high intensity acoustic probes of the seafloor to detect potential oil resources – will expire that date without a mechanism to renew them.
Called incidental harassment authorizations, or IHAs, the permits are a requirement under federal law protecting marine mammals. Environmental groups, allied with fishing, coastal and tourism industries in the Carolinas and Georgia that oppose offshore drilling, have fought the permits in federal court for years.
The highly endangered northern right whales, now numbering only around 400 animals, are at special risk, those critics say. The whales use seasonal feeding and calving grounds off the Southeast coast and are already at high risk from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements in their range from Canada to Florida.
In a joint statement environmental groups said the court conference yielded agreement that seeking new IHA permits “would move the lengthy process back to square one,” with the immediate effect that survey companies will not conduct any cruises in the near future.
“This is a huge victory not just for us but for every coastal community that loudly and persistently protested the possibility of seismic blasting,” said Catherine Wannamaker, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “There will be no boats in the water this year, and because this resets the clock, there will be no boats in the water for a long time”…
