A pending economic disaster went mostly unnoticed last week when a federal judge in Maryland (of all places) ruled in favor of green groups that are demanding all oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico be shut down, unless the Biden administration adopts new protections for whales and sturgeon by December 20.

Reuters celebrated with a picture of a fish in an oil spill:

The oil industry issued a frank statement:

The disruptive consequences to the Gulf of Mexico states and US economy cannot be understated if the federal agencies fail to timely issue a new biological opinion. A timely completion of the revised biological opinion should be their highest priority. Any disruptions would not only impact the hundreds of thousands of energy workers in the region, but could increase energy insecurity by jeopardizing a significant amount of oil production coming from the Gulf of Mexico, nearly 15% of the U.S. total.

December 20 comes after the election – but notices of potential mass layoffs could make this a big political problem before then.