One of the wins on climate change under the Biden administration is actually a loss. Last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. blocked the sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, citing the current administration’s failure to properly consider how it would impact the ongoing climate crisis.
U.S. district court judge Rudolph Contreras found that federal agencies including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management half-assed its environmental analysis, which was originally completed under the Trump administration. That analysis bumbled its way into favoring the sales because, according to their math, the climate impacts would be worse if the land was left undrilled. According to their reasoning, failing to sell the plots would result in other countries with worse environmental standards increasing their production and generating more greenhouse gases.
