Coast Watch: Judge Halts Sonic Blasting Permit Work During Shutdown

A federal court in South Carolina ruled Friday that all federal work on sonic blasting permits for offshore oil and gas exploration must stop until the partial government shutdown is over.

The order deals with permits and related work regarding five companies’ requests to use undersea seismic blasting as part of oil and gas exploration efforts off the Atlantic Coast. Conservationists, local governments dependent on tourism, and coastal business groups have all joined in suing to block the testing. The suits involve South Carolina cities, citizen groups in South Carolina and nationwide, and South Carolina businesses. (A separate lawsuit challenging the permits has been filed by eight other states’ attorneys general, including North Carolina’s Josh Stein.)

The court’s order came after the U.S. Justice Department claimed it couldn’t respond to South Carolina’s petition to join the suit because the shutdown barred it from handling non-essential business. At the same time, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had told its staff to keep working on the challenged permits. Nope, said the judge: You can’t have it both ways. If the shutdown keeps you from responding to legal requests regarding the permits, then you can’t keep working on the permits during the shutdown.

“The government was trying to have its cake and eat it too, and we’re pleased the Court did not allow that to happen,” said Laura Cantral, executive director of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, one of the groups suing to stop seismic blasting in the Atlantic. “This is an issue of critical importance to the coast, and one that must be handled openly, transparently, and fairly. This ruling will allow that to happen, and that is good for all concerned.”

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