Happy Nice Mall

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday canceled 80 million acres of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, ruling that the Biden administration did not sufficiently consider climate change when it auctioned off the leases late last year.

This Decision of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia It’s a big victory for environmental groups who have criticized the Biden administration for continuing the sale after promising to phase the country off fossil fuels. It was the largest rental sale in the history of the United States.

Now the Ministry of Interior must conduct a new environmental analysis that takes into account the greenhouse gas emissions from the eventual development and production of leases. After that, the agency will have to decide whether to hold a new auction.

“It’s huge,” said Brettny Hardy, senior attorney for Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups that have filed the lawsuit.

“This requires the bureau to go back to the drawing board and really consider the climate costs before putting these leases up for sale, and that’s really important,” Hardy said. It will remain locked up for decades to come, damaging our global climate.”

Home Office spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said the agency is reviewing the decision.

As a candidate, Mr. Biden has pledged to stop issuing new leases to drill on public lands and federal waters. “And by the way, no more drilling on federal soil, period. Period, period, period,” Mr. Biden told voters in New Hampshire in February 2020. Shortly after taking office, he signed an executive order to pause the issuance of new leases.

But a federal judge in Louisiana blocked that order and also ruled that the administration must make pre-scheduled lease sales in the Gulf.

Biden administration officials said Interior Minister Deb Haaland risks being arrested for contempt of court if the auction is not held. But environmental groups have argued that the administration has other options, including conducting a new analysis to examine the ways in which burning oil from the Gulf could contribute to climate change.

The lawsuit alleged that the Home Office relied on an old environmental analysis conducted by the Trump administration that concluded that additional drilling in the Gulf would not increase greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental groups said the analysis did not consider new information about the impact of offshore drilling on rising global temperatures.

“We are reviewing this disappointing decision and considering our options. Offshore energy development plays a critical role in strengthening our nation’s economy and energy security,” said Scott Lauermann, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies.

The companies had argued in court that canceling the lease would jeopardize secret bids for brochures and let their competitors know who was bidding on what and how much.

Shell, BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil have offered $192 million for drilling rights in the government-issued area. Although the sale took place on November 17, no leases have yet been made.

Judge Rudolph Contreras said in his decision that the Department of the Interior had been “arbitrary and capricious in excluding external consumption from greenhouse gas emissions” and should be done under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, or NEPA, which says the government should do so. Consider ecological damage when deciding whether to allow drilling and construction projects.

Any disruption that could be caused by the cancellation of rental sales “in this case does not outweigh the seriousness of the NEPA error and the need for the agency to get it right,” he wrote.