Interior carries out Gulf offshore oil and gas lease over green objections

The Interior Department auctioned off 73 million acres for oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in its first offshore oil and gas lease sale in the region since 2021.

The Biden administration held the lease sale as it faces pressure from industry groups and many Republicans to lease more public lands and offshore tracts for oil and gas to protect consumers from higher energy prices. At the same time, many Democrats in Congress oppose new leasing, as do many environmental groups, who pressured the administration not to hold the sale.

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Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Industry Management said they had no choice but to hold the sale. Wednesday’s lease sale, known as Lease Sale 259, is one of three previously canceled offshore lease sales ordered by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a key negotiator in the effort, insisted on the inclusion of language reviving canceled lease sales, along with other language to advance more oil and gas development on federal lands and in federal waters.

Lease Sale 259 brought in nearly $264 million in high bids, BOEM announced Wednesday, outperforming previous Gulf lease sales going back to at least 2017, including some that offered more acreage.

The last Gulf lease sale to be held was in Nov. 2021 but was later blocked by a federal court. The IRA also directed the Interior to reinstate that lease sale, effectively overriding the litigation, and the department awarded those bids in September.

Oil and gas industry groups have criticized the Biden administration for pursuing new regulations and restrictions on fossil fuel development on public lands and for not leasing more regularly. President Joe Biden ordered a pause on new leasing during his first week in office, but that order was later blocked in federal court.

Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said Wednesday’s lease sale was “needlessly overdue.”

“Companies need lease opportunities to explore and potentially develop domestic energy resources,” Milito said. “Our national energy needs clearly depend upon a commitment to continued U.S. offshore energy development.”

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Environmental advocates said the administration went back on Biden’s promises to limit climate change with the lease sale.

“Reviving lease sales and greenlighting massive fossil fuel projects demonstrates the Administration cares more about Big Oil profits than frontline communities and endangered species,” said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth.