WASHINGTON (CN) -A collection of conservation organizations sued the Trump administration Tuesday, claiming it failed to consider the environmental impacts before announcing the lease sale of 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The Gulf of Mexico is an extraordinary aesthetic, economic and environmental resource to the five Gulf Coast states and the nation, supporting some of the most productive and biodiverse tropical and temperate ecosystems in the United States," the groups wrote in the complaint. "The harms from oil and gas activities can become catastrophic."
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas production, released the notice for the Dec. 10 sale on Nov. 10, along with announcing the sale of 1 million acres in Alaska's Cook Inlet. The sale is the first of 30 in the Gulf mandated by the Reconciliation Act, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
"President Trump's signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act marked the beginning of a new chapter for oil and gas development in the Gulf of America and Alaska's Cook Inlet," Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Acting Director Matt Giacona said in a statement. "[The bureau] is now moving forward with a predictable, congressionally mandated leasing schedule that will support offshore oil and gas development for decades to come."
The Gulf sale alone is expected to yield 750 million barrels of oil and 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next 50 years. Five environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Healthy Gulf and the Center for Biological Diversity, filed the lawsuit in Washington, D.C., against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Giacona and their respective agencies.
"Opening 80 million acres in the Gulf is a recipe for more spills, more carbon pollution and more damage to coastal communities and marine life," Irene Gutierrez, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement. "This sale is proceeding without basic environmental review and has the weakest safeguards we've seen in years, and is a step backward on climate, clean energy and a livable future."
The groups claim the sale bucks 50 years of precedent requiring the Department of the Interior to consider whether offshore sales comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.
Among other things, the group claims the government failed to consider the impact of the project on critically endangered Rice's whales, environmental justice communities in the Gulf, the risks of oil spills and their impacts and the growing scale of oil and gas infrastructure that is already overdue for decommissioning.
The groups further argue that the government failed to consider alternatives, including a plan that would exclude Rice's whales' proposed critical habitat with a 10-kilometer or greater buffer.
Scientists first defined the species in 2021 and they estimate the Rice's whale population stands at only 50. Should enough breeding females die, the species could become the first large whale species to go extinct due to humans in recorded history. The Gulf is also home to five of the world's seven sea turtle species.
The groups seek a court order preventing the issuance of leases and barring on-the-ground activities for any associated leases until the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management complies with the National Environmental Policy Act. The 1970 act, signed by Richard Nixon after a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, requires the government to conduct environmental review and engage with the public.
"These are the very environmental laws that Congress passed decades ago in response to the destructive consequences of offshore oil drilling," George Torgun, senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in a statement. "It adds insult to injury that the Trump administration dismisses the serious harm this massive oil-and-gas sale could bring to our most critically endangered whale species while it tries to shut down offshore wind development by saying more environmental review is needed."
The sale comes despite a 2023 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office outlining more than 2,700 unplugged wells and 500 defunct platforms overdue for decommissioning. The deteriorating structures leak toxins along with oil and methane.
The oil industry currently has more than 2,000 leases across over 12 million acres of offshore territory in the Gulf. According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, only a fifth of the 2,206 active leases are producing oil as global oil production is expected to grow more than demand over the next two years. The Gulf produces 97% of the nation's offshore oil and gas, which the government primarily exports to other countries.
The groups outlined the harm that oil and gas activities have on coastal communities, which are composed primarily of Black residents. The groups claim the refineries and petrochemical plants contribute to high rates of cancer and respiratory illnesses.
"Offshore drilling has devastating consequences for coastal ecosystems, wildlife and communities, and with this lease sale, the Trump administration has designed one of the riskiest, dirtiest, and most ethically questionable sales in recent memory," Senior Attorney with Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program, Devorah Ancel, said in a statement. "We're taking them to court - again - because no administration gets to pick and choose which laws it follows and which it flouts."
In addition to immediate impacts, the groups claim the government's sale will significantly contribute to climate change.
"Climate change will undoubtedly affect the habitat, behavior, abundance, and distribution of all species present in the Gulf of Mexico," the groups wrote. "The exploration, development, and production of oil and gas in the Gulf will release greenhouse gases from the use of combustion engines, construction, drilling, and through the deliberate or accidental release of methane."