‘HUGE VICTORY’

Judge Blocks Biggest Ever Gulf of Mexico Oil Drilling Lease Over Climate Crisis

The ruling said the federal government underestimated how badly the Gulf of Mexico site could hit the environment.

The biggest ever offshore oil-and-gas lease sale in U.S. history will not be going ahead after a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration failed to properly account for the climate impact of the deal. The U.S. Department of Interior auctioned off some 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling in November, and the leases could have gone into effect as early as next week. However, in a ruling Thursday, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., blocked the sale, citing “a serious failing” in the government’s estimates of how badly the development of the site could hit the environment. According to The Wall Street Journal, environmental groups sued over the sale last year, alleging that the Interior Department underestimated the greenhouse-gas emissions that would come from the site. Kristen Monsell from the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups behind the lawsuit, hailed the ruling a “huge victory for our climate.” The Interior Department said it’s reviewing the ruling.