"WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration’s decision to keep issuing oil drilling permits during the government shutdown is putting those authorizations in legal jeopardy, environmentalists argued in a filing Thursday.
The Bureau of Land Management has already violated a federal spending law and legal requirements for public consultation by issuing at least 153 drilling permits since the shutdown began on Dec. 22, WildEarth Guardians, the Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity said in a formal objection lodged with the agency.
“The public is entirely locked out of the process” during the shutdown, they argue, since people can’t discuss drilling permits with regulators, visit bureau offices to view applications, or even file public comments on them."
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