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Last week, a group of environmental activist organizations – some among the most extreme in the country — filed a suit against the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and others in the Middle District of Florida. The organizations claim that the NPS violated sections of the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to address the environmental impacts of using seismic testing in the Big Cypress National Preserve to look for potential oil reserves. As with many nuisance lawsuits filed by anti-industry activists, the lawsuit – and the accompanying press release, which was really the point – is based on a falsehood.

While the plaintiffs — the South Florida Wildlands Association (SFWA), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and Earthworks — refuse to acknowledge that seismic exploration is a non-invasive and safe technology with minimal environmental impact, the fact remains that it is. To put the NPS’s decision in perspective, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) — often in conjunction with the NPS — has ruled on numerous occasions that 3-D Vibroseis testing projects are safe and have no significant environmental impact. In the cases where certain elements might be “potentially effected,” BLM’s comprehensive regulations kick in, instructing project managers on how to effectively mitigate risks to soil erosion, federally listed threatened and endangered species, and others.

Earlier this year, EID ...