A federal wildlife agency no longer has to conduct a new study on imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico after a federal judge rescinded his order due to the “God Squad” exemption of Gulf oil and gas activities from Endangered Species Act regulations.
Judge James D. Cain Jr. of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on Wednesday granted the Trump administration’s request for relief from his previous judgment. Cain had required the National Marine Fisheries Service to redo a biological opinion studying the oil and gas industry’s impacts on the imperiled Rice’s whale.
The agency ...