Friday, January 28, 2022

U.S. Judge Annuls Gulf of Mexico Oil Auction Over

A federal judge invalidated the results of an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday saying the Biden administration failed to properly account for the auction's climate change impact.

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of existing U.S. oil production and 5% of dry natural gas output, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In the decision, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia ruled to vacate the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's Lease Sale 257, which offered about 80 million offshore acres in the Gulf of Mexico in an auction last November.

Contreras agreed, faulting the administration for excluding foreign consumption from its greenhouse gas emissions analysis and for ignoring the latest science about the role of oil and gas development on global warming.

CAMPAIGN PLEDGEBiden campaigned for the White House partially on a pledge to end federal oil and gas drilling to fight climate change, but efforts to suspend new auctions failed after Gulf Coast states sued.

Like the Gulf sale, those auctions were initiated after a federal judge in June ordered the government to resume oil and gas leasing.

The decision is not the first time a court has cited faulty environmental analyses in blocking oil and gas development on federal lands.
 

https://www.oedigital.com/news/493869-u-s-judge-annuls-gulf-of-mexico-oil-auction-over-climate-impact 

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