Environmental groups in states along the Gulf coast say the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Water Act by refusing to set state pollution standards to tackle the “dead zone” in the Gulf, a Massachusetts-sized area of incredibly low oxygen concentrations that can’t support aquatic life.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced yesterday morning that it will begin selling leases to allow offshore oil drilling in 38 million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups say the move is troubling, as regulatory oversight and environmental problems related to the catastrophic 2010 gulf oil spill haven’t yet been fully remedied.
The Obama administration has approved BP’s first plan to drill for oil in the gulf since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, which left 11 dead and damaged the gulf ecosystem and the economies of the states that border it. Representatives for the Gulf Restoration Network say the decision is “problematic,” considering the fact that comprehensive safety legislation has yet to be passed through Congress.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, is again defending his decision not to include Florida environmental groups in a recent hearing on a set of EPA water pollution standards, saying that the list of witnesses was finalized before any of them asked to be included.
In a press release this morning, environmental law firm Earthjustice said that state waterways only “narrowly escaped” an assault by the Florida House of Representatives.
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