Three environmental conservation groups are bringing a lawsuit against federal agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regarding oil drilling in Los Padres National Forest.
The groups—comprising Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife—filed a notice of intent to sue on Oct. 11, calling for supplemental environmental review of oil drilling plans for Los Padres.
The groups claim that the Endangered Species Act approvals on a 2005 Forest Service plan permitting expanded oil and gas development throughout Los Padres are “outdated” in light of recent research on fracking and climate change. In Santa Barbara County, the 2005 plan permitted oil drilling in parts of the forest in Cuyama Valley, including the northern foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Apache and Quatal canyons.
The lawsuit aims to stop future oil drilling projects in the forest, which a news release from ForestWatch said would pose harm to endangered species in Los Padres, pollute water supplies, and contribute to climate change. The release added that the oil drilling plan estimates “less than a day’s supply of oil for our country over the course of the next 20 years.”
“The U.S. Forest Service’s plan would auction off these treasured landscapes to the highest bidder, placing them—and the clean water they provide to our wildlife and communities—at grave risk from oil development and fracking,” ForestWatch Executive Director Jeff Kuyper said in the news release.