Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc. v. Center for Biological Diversity

• Main Author: VandenBos, Nick
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks at University of Montana 2015
• Subjects: oil; gas; exploration; injunction; Arctic; Chukchi; Arctic Coast; Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement; declaratory judgment; justiciability; adverse parties; adverse interests; Energy and Utilities Law; Environmental Law; Law; Natural Resources Law; and Mineral Law
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/plrlr/vol0/iss5/18; https://scholarworks.umt.edu/context/plrlr/article/1426/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf

In an attempt to stave off what it saw as impending litigation, Shell Gulf of Mexico, Inc. filed suit under the Declaratory Judgment Act against a range of environmental groups opposed to Shell’s oil exploration in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas of Alaska’s Arctic Coast. Shell requested a declaratory judgment that its oil spill response plans, as approved by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, did not violate the Administrative Procedures Act. Although noting the novelty of Shell’s argument, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded the district court had erred in determining a justiciable case existed between Shell and the environmental groups.