On 21 October, the Maryland District Court granted the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) motion to extend the effective date of the court’s August decision to vacate the current NMFS “programmatic” Biological Opinion (BiOp) it issued in 2020. This latest action amends the Court’s vacatur date from 20 December 2024 to 21 May 2025, by which time NMFS has indicated it could issue a revised BiOp to address shortcomings identified in the suit.
As a critical element of the offshore energy permitting process, the required BiOp document provides an accounting of potential environmental impacts related to marine wildlife under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. The absence of an otherwise valid BiOp would induce considerable offshore permitting uncertainty and would effectively thwart BOEM’s timely issuance of U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) activity permits.
While IADC is encouraged by this latest action, it remains hopeful that NMFS will be able to meet the Court’s May deadline for issuing a revised BiOp instrument that satisfies concerns originally identified by the plaintiff environmental groups in 2020. In an official statement released on 25 October, IADC stated,
“The original decision to vacate the 2020 Biological Opinion in December 2024 would have essentially shut down operations in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening thousands of jobs and U.S. energy security. IADC supports the industry stakeholders working diligently on this matter and is fully prepared to provide direct assistance in these efforts.”
