Nation : Federal Offshore Oil Plan Upheld
In a major defeat for environmentalists, a federal appeals court today upheld all but one aspect of the Interior Department’s controversial five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing.
A unanimous three-judge panel upheld the key points of the program but ordered a review by Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel of the cumulative impact from the program on migratory species, such as whales and salmon, in the Pacific and Alaskan regions.
The environmentalists’ suit had asked the appeals court to send the entire program back to the Interior Department and to vacate sales in especially sensitive areas off the country’s coastline.
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