Federal judge throws out Gulf of Mexico offshore oil lease sale – By Abigail Adcox (Washington Examiner) / January 27, 2022
A plan to lease millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore drilling was denied by a federal judge Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras for the District of Columbia rejected the lease sale, which was held by the Interior Department in November for 80 million acres to be used for offshore oil drilling, saying it did not do a good job of estimating the effects on greenhouse gas emissions in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the ruling.
The sale had garnered more than $190 million in revenue for drilling rights in federal oil and gas reserves and had drawn bids from several major U.S. oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, according to Reuters.
