US environmentalists prevailed in stopping the controversial oil and gas extraction deal
The Biden administration has been ordered not to execute leases for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which were auctioned off in November.
The government had offered 80 million acres of federal waters, of which 1.7 million acres were sold, netting over $190 million from oil giants like Chevron, Shell, and Exxon Mobil. A federal judge sided with a group of environmentalists, who argued that the auction had been given the green light under a flawed justification.
Rudolph Contreras, a US District Court judge for the District of Columbia, acknowledged that the environmental impact assessment by the Department of the Interior had used outdated computer modeling. The analysis failed to account for foreign consumption in its calculations of the greenhouse emissions that would be generated due to the lease sale, the judge said.
The analysis was done under the Trump administration, and it concluded that the negative impact on the global climate would be worse if the US didn’t drill more in the Gulf of Mexico and instead met its energy needs through imports.
Huge victory for Earthjustice Senior Attorney, @BrettnyHardy and our clients in the Gulf. https://t.co/hec6K19IqD
