District of Columbia axes drilling on 80 million acres saying that environmental impacts were incorrectly calculated.
QUICK FACTS:
- Rudolph Contreras, a US District Court judge for the District of Columbia, ordered the Biden administration to halt execution of the leases for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The judge cited the environmental impact assessment by the Department of the Interior saying they used outdated computer modeling, according to RT America.
- The analysis, done under the Trump administration, assessed that the impact on the climate would be worse if the US didn’t drill.
- The report stated that if the United States were to import oil needed for energy, the net result would be worse than drilling in the Gulf.
FURTHER DETAILS ON THE DECISION:
- Environmental groups sued the government over the largest ever auction of drilling leases in the history of oil production in the gulf according to The Guardian.
- “I’m thrilled the court saw through the Biden administration’s horribly reckless decision to hold the largest oil lease sale in US history without carefully studying the risks,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
- The lease sale was held in November, just after the UN climate talks where President Joe Biden promised he would “lead by example” in the climate crisis.
BACKGROUND:
- The summer of 2021 also saw setbacks to drilling in the United States as the Biden administration put a hold on drilling on all federal lands.
- That executive order was later blocked by a Louisiana federal judge who said that the oil and gas leases for public lands and waters should be honored, TFPP Wire reported.
