**U.S. Court Ruling Compels Federal Agencies to Enhance Protections for Gulf of Mexico’s Endangered Rice’s Whale**
A recent judicial decision has significantly impacted the future of oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) biological opinion on offshore oil and gas drilling in the region fails to adequately protect the critically endangered Rice’s whale and the Gulf sturgeon.
### Background
The biological opinion, originally issued in 2020, was intended to ensure that offshore drilling activities would not jeopardize endangered and threatened marine species, including the Rice’s whale and the Gulf sturgeon. However, environmental groups, including Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Turtle Island Restoration Network, challenged the legality of this opinion, arguing that it underestimated the risk and harms of oil spills to protected species.
### Key Ruling Points
– **Flawed Analysis**: The court found that the NMFS’s biological opinion was flawed because it:
– Underestimated the risk and harms of oil spills to protected species.
– Incorrectly assumed the population of the Rice’s whale remained as large as it was before the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill, when in reality there were only an estimated 33 to 44 Rice’s whales in the world.
– Proposed mitigation measures for only two of the five identified stressors likely to jeopardize the Rice’s whale, without explaining how these measures would effectively protect the species.
### Impact on Offshore Drilling
– **Vacation of Opinion**: The court has vacated and remanded the NMFS’s biological opinion, requiring the agency to revise and improve its assessment. If a new, satisfactory opinion is not completed by December 20, 2024, the current opinion will be considered invalid[