Group Wins Suit To Disclose Fracking in Gulf of Mexico

If fracking fluid laced with toxic chemicals was being spilled or dumped into the Gulf of Mexico (where your oysters and shrimp may come from), wouldn't you want to know that?

It's not something the federal government had planned to reveal — although it was offering 21.6 million acres of Gulf waters for auction to a glutted market that wanted only a small fraction of that. Some of the acreage now leased in the Gulf may be fracked, and current rules reportedly do not forbid dumping of waste fracking fluid into the Gulf.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents on offshore Gulf fracking, and was refused by two Interior Department offshore drilling agencies, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. CBD sued, and the lawsuit was settled June 2, 2015.

"Under the new agreement," a CBD release stated "the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement are required to turn over permits, reports, emails and other documents related to the federal government’s approval for oil and gas companies to frack offshore wells in the Gulf."

• "Lawsuit Forces Government To Disclose Extent of Offshore Fracking in Gulf of Mexico," DeSmog, June 7, 2015, by Farron Cousins.
• "Lawsuit Prompts Agreement To Release Federal Documents on Offshore Fracking in Gulf of Mexico," Center for Biological Diversity, Release of June 2, 2015.
• "Concerns Loom Over Offshore Fracking's Extent, Oversight," WWL-TV/USA TODAY, October 31, 2014, by David Hammer.