September 10, 2024 — The American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil trade group in the United States, is warning that a court order issued last month could shut down all oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil industry group sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Friday, saying that the decision issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland could put the country’s “economic security in jeopardy.”
It comes just weeks after the district court ruled in favor of a number of environmental groups that filed a lawsuit after the National Marine Fisheries Service issued its 2020 Biological Opinion on offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.