National News

Multi-State Group Challenges Seismic Testing Permits. “After taking several days to mull it over and plan a way forward, a group of environmental advocacy organizations from Georgia and the Carolinas filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston, S.C., to block seismic air gun testing off the Southeastern coast ahead of possible oil and gas drilling. Alice Keyes, vice president for One Hundred Miles, said one of the reasons OHM is part of the suit is because they ‘believe our federal government is unlawfully and unjustifiably threatening marine species and taking it one step closer to offshore drilling. This is an industrial development that will transform Georgia’s working waterfront, our beaches and our pristine marshes.’ She said seismic testing poses a danger to the entire food chain, but especially to North Atlantic right whales. Keyes referenced a letter signed by 28 right whale experts and sent to the Obama administration in 2016 that suggested seismic testing off the Atlantic coast could provide a tipping point to the right whales’ path toward extinction. [The Brunswick News, 12/12/18 (=)]