Green Groups Pile on Legal Challenges to Gulf Species Exemption

Environmental groups in two separate lawsuits challenged the Trump administration’s exemption of all Gulf of Mexico oil and gas operations from the Endangered Species Act.

The lawsuits filed Wednesday and Thursday add to ongoing litigation filed by the Center for Biological Diversity over the Endangered Species Committee’s March 31 decision, which the group says threatens the Rice’s whale and other protected species.

“The Committee’s sweeping Exemption is arbitrary and capricious and contrary to and in excess of authority under the Administrative Procedure Act” and ESA, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, ...