Jan 27th, 2022, 09:42pm
A federal judge revoked oil and gas leases for a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, saying the government failed to consider the impact on climate change before they were auctioned off.
Shell's Perdido offshore drilling and production platform is the world's deepest.
The largest offshore oil and gas lease in the country's history was thrown out by a judge in D.C.
The Department of the Interior used a flawed method for weighing how drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could impact greenhouse gas emissions, not taking into account foreign demand for oil, as required by federal environmental laws, according to a ruling.
Friends of the Earth is one of the environmental groups that sued the government and they called the ruling a victory.
The decision is still being reviewed by the Interior Department.
President Joe Biden halted all new oil and gas leases on federal land after taking office last year. A federal judge reversed the moratorium in June, saying the Biden Administration didn't have the authority to stop signing new leases nationwide. The White House has argued that it has no choice but to obey the court's order, even though environmental groups excoriated the Biden Administration for continuing to sign leases.
It was 14.6%. According to the Department of Energy, the United States produced a share of crude oil that was produced on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in 2020. 1.6 million barrels were produced per day in 2020, down from the previous year but still up from seven years prior.
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