The US federal agency charged with protecting endangered species such as the brown pelican and the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle signed off on the Minerals Management Service’s conclusion that deep-water drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico posed no significant risk to wildlife, despite evidence that a spill of even moderate size could be disastrous, federal documents show.
By law, the minerals service, before selling oil leases in the Gulf, must submit an evaluation of the potential biological impact on threatened species to the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose responsibilities include protecting endangered species on land. Although the wildlife agency cannot block lease sales, it can ask for changes in the assessment if it believes it is inadequate or it can insist on conducting its own survey of potential threats, something the agency has frequently done in the past.
However, in a letter dated Sept. 14, 2007, and obtained by the New York Times, the agency agreed with the minerals service’s characterization that the chances that deep-water drilling would result in a spill that would pollute critical habitat was “low.”
PHOTO: AFP
The agency signed off on the minerals service’s biological evaluation, even though that assessment considered only the risks to wildlife based on spills of 1,000 barrels (159,000 liters) to 15,000 barrels — a minuscule amount compared with the hundreds of thousands of barrels now spewing into the gulf. The assessment also noted that even such modest spills carried up to a 27 percent risk of oil reaching the critical habitat for some endangered species.
Much of the first wave of criticism over the federal government’s part in the Deepwater Horizon disaster has focused on the dual role of the minerals service (renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement last month), which was responsible for both promoting offshore drilling through the sale of leases and for policing it. However, environmental groups were also critical of other federal agencies that have watchdog roles and could have exercised their authority to protect the species.
“The Endangered Species Act requires caution, but federal wildlife agencies allowed offshore oil drilling to play Russian roulette with endangered species in the Gulf,” said Daniel Rohlf, clinical director of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center at Lewis & Clark Law School.
“Would people get on a plane if they knew it had a one in four chance of a major mechanical problem?” Rohlf said. “Federal wildlife agencies made conscious choices — under the guise of science — to allow offshore oil drilling with an identical risk of serious harm to endangered species.”
Deborah Fuller, the endangered species program coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife’s office in Lafayette, Louisiana, led the team that reviewed the minerals service’s biological assessment. She said that her office recognized that a big spill would be disastrous to wildlife and that it made suggestions for increasing preparedness for the cleanup of a spill as part of an informal consultation on the biological review.
However, she said her office did not challenge the minerals service’s assessment of the risk.
“We all know an oil spill is catastrophic, but what is the likelihood it will happen?” Fuller asked.
She said her office had considered that any likelihood under 50 percent would not be enough to require the protections of her office.
“Obviously, we are going to relook at all these numbers for upcoming consultations,” she said.
Meanwhile, tar balls from the Gulf oil spill found on a Texas beach were the first evidence that gushing crude from the Deepwater Horizon well has reached all the Gulf states.
About 20 liters of tar balls were found on Saturday on the Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston, said Captain Marcus Woodring, the Coast Guard commander for the
The amount discovered is tiny compared to what has coated beaches so far in the hardest-hit parts of the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. It still provoked the quick dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that BP will pay for the trouble.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese