In the wake of the catastrophic oil spill continuing to flow from the bottom of the ocean after British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded on April 20, the Center for Biological Diversity announced last Friday that it intends to file a lawsuit naming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a defendant for failing to enforce the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Among its complaints, it cites the authorization of more than 300 drilling operations in the gulf that were allowed to proceed by the Minerals Management Service without required permits from NOAA.