Court Decision Averts Shutdown of U.S. Oil and Gas in the Gulf of Mexico

A federal judge has given the National Marine Fisheries Service five more months to complete a new biological opinion on protecting species in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, averting what the oil industry had warned was a potential halt of new and existing oil and natural gas production and activity in the region. Earlier this year, District Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court in Maryland vacated, with effect from December 20, 2024, the so-called biological opinion of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is legally needed…