Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to offshore oil fracking ban off California coast
The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider a challenge to an offshore fracking ban in federal waters off the California coast, providing another win to environmental groups battling against specialized oil drilling in the Pacific Ocean.
Monday’s High Court decision came a year after the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Santa Barbara-based watchdog groups contending that additional environmental analysis must occur.
The case centered on what some call fracking and acidizing, and others refer to as “well-stimulation treatments” at California’s offshore oil platforms in federal waters.
“The Supreme Court was right to reject the oil industry’s latest attempt to allow fracking and acidizing in our waters with zero meaningful environmental review,” said Maggie Hall, senior attorney at the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center.
Environmental groups contend the methods threaten whales, otters and other animals in the Santa Barbara Channel.
Attorneys for EDC in Santa Barbara initially filed a lawsuit in 2014 to stop fracking and acidizing after discovering, through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, that more than 50 permits had been issued by the federal government without any public or environmental review.
Specifically, the appellate court issued a 76-page summary and opinion in 2022 that the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Coastal Zone Management Act when it allowed fracking and acidizing extraction practices at all offshore oil and gas wells in leased federal waters in the Pacific Ocean.
The appellate court ruling encompassed three separate lawsuits against the federal government’s approval of specialized oil drilling methods plus the inadequate environmental review.
The American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and DCOR, LLC, which intervened as defendants in the case, had asked the Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision.
“Access to the vast energy resources offshore is essential for meeting the growing demand for affordable, reliable energy while achieving our climate goals,” Holly Hopkins, API vice president of upstream policy, said in a written statement provided to Noozhawk on Monday .
“API will continue to work with policymakers to advance opportunities that allow for the safe and responsible development of the Outer Continental Shelf.”
The U.S. Department of Justice, representing the federal defendant agencies, opposed the petition for review.
“Today’s decision affirms the importance of assessing the impacts of offshore fracking on California’s marine wildlife, fisheries, and coastal communities,” said Ted Morton, executive director of Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. “With ever-mounting threats to ocean ecosystems from climate change, it is essential that federal agencies adequately evaluate the risks of oil and gas development on marine resources.”
The appellate ruling had noted the lack of toxicity data for “31 of the 48 distinct chemicals” used in offshore well-stimulation treatments.
Environmental groups contend at least 10 chemicals routinely used in offshore fracking could kill or harm a broad variety of marine species, including marine mammals and fish.
The Ninth Circuit’s decision said that Department of Interior officials “disregarded necessary caution” when granting permission for fracking practices.
“California’s amazing coast and vulnerable marine life deserve this victory, which will protect the ecosystem from the many dangers of offshore fracking,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“The fracking ban will help prevent more toxic chemicals from poisoning fish, sea otters and other marine life. But our ocean won’t be truly protected until offshore drilling stops once and for all. We hope this is the beginning of the end of drilling off California’s coast.”
Hall said EDC remains concerned the threat of specialized drilling methods remains since the oil industry says the methods are crucial.
“I think going forward we hope to really see our energy spent on renewable energy and not getting at extracting the last bit of oil out of these wells and continuing to perpetuate the problems of fossil fuel, especially now in this climate crisis that we’re in,” Hall added.
Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com .
