Tuesday, June 17: Sierra Club, led by senior attorney Devorah Ancel, and partners Gulf Restoration Network, Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice filed two lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's efforts to open up vast offshore areas to oil and gas drilling. The first lawsuit, filed in June, challenges the administration's failure to complete the required Endangered Species Act consultation to evaluate impacts of high risk, deepwater drilling on federally endangered and threatened marine species. Recognizing the devastating impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster on Gulf ecosystems and its wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Services began consultation of these heightened risks on listed species in 2010. However, more than seven years have passed and the agencies still have not completed a new biological opinion, even as the Trump Administration plans to ramp up offshore drilling operations in the Gulf. The lawsuit challenges the administration's unreasonable delay in completing this critical analysis.