Enviros have sued again over Shell in the Arctic. This time, they filed a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Defendants are the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Department of the Interior. Shell has moved to intervene in the case.
The Enviros’ petition for review states in part:
“Alaska Wilderness League, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Pacific Environment, Resisting Environmental Destruction On Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), Sierra Club, and The Wilderness Society (Petitioners) hereby petition this Court to review the May 11, 2015, decision of the Secretary of Interior, acting through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), to approve an offshore oil exploration plan submitted by Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. for the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean offshore Alaska. See Attachments 1-3.
Petitioners are conservation and Alaska Native groups whose members use and enjoy the affected area for recreational, aesthetic, or scientific purposes or whose members depend on the ecosystems and wildlife of the Arctic for subsistence, cultural, and traditional uses. Petitioners are affected adversely and aggrieved by the decision to approve Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.’s exploration plan for the Chukchi Sea. In approving the plan, BOEM violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), 43 U.S.C. §§ 1331-1356, 1866, and the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4370.”
