Environmental group to sue US over oil permits

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N14220004.htm

(Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar improperly approved offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico without regard to possible harm to marine mammals, an environmental group said Friday in a legal notice.

The Center for Biological Diversity said it plans to sue Salazar and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) for failing to get environmental permits required by two environmental laws -- the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

The group said the Interior Department has approved three lease sales, more than 100 seismic surveys and more than 300 drilling operations since Salazar took office in 2009 without the required environmental permits meant to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals.

"The Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service are creating a lawless zone in the Gulf of Mexico when it comes to these environmental laws," Miyoko Sakashita, the center's oceans director, said by telephone. "The oil companies really get to call the shots."


http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/14-1