Oil industry urges court to scuttle offshore drilling challenge

By Ben Geman - 01/02/13 11:29 AM ET

The oil industry wants a federal court to dismiss a green group’s lawsuit against Interior Department plans to conduct new offshore oil-and-gas lease sales, alleging the environmentalists lack standing to bring the case.

The American Petroleum Institute and other groups, in a Dec. 31 filing, say the Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE) can’t establish so-called representational standing because it’s not a membership organization.

Industry groups also say CSE doesn’t have a sufficient stake as an organization, noting it has not suffered the “particularized injury” from Interior's action needed to clear the bar for standing to bring the case, among other arguments.

CSE is challenging Interior’s 2012-2017 auctions for drilling blocks in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast, claiming the economic analysis underlying the leasing plan is “critically flawed, biased and incomplete.”

Attorneys for the group say the plan should be redone because Interior failed to consider the economic value of not going ahead with leasing, in some cases. E2-Wire has more on CSE’s case against Interior’s plan here.

API, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the U.S. Oil & Gas Association and the International Association of Drilling Contractors are seeking to intervene in the case on Interior’s side.

The groups’ filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit makes several arguments against CSE’s ability to establish the legal standing needed to bring the case.

Here’s a bit from the filing about why the industry groups argue CSE can’t show that it will suffer an injury from Interior’s plan:

CSE as an organization plainly has not suffered any legally cognizable injury. By its self-description to this Court, CSE “works to speed the transition to a sustainable society through rigorous analysis of policy, programs, and projects, by developing creative solutions for government agencies, businesses, non-profits, and educators, and by providing expert support for legislative, administrative, and legal campaigns.” ... Nothing in the approval of the 2012-17 leasing program will impair CSE’s ability to continue to pursue that political agenda.