A federal judge canceled major oil and gas leases over climate change
Source: https://www.npr.org/
Author: Nathan Rott
Late last year, just days after pledging to cut fossil fuels at international climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, the Biden administration held the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history. Climate groups urged the Biden administration to stop the sale, but the Interior Department said it was compelled to move forward after a different federal judge struck down the administration's temporary moratorium on new oil and gas lease sales. Oil and gas companies only ended up bidding on 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration used an analysis conducted under former President Donald Trump that environmental groups alleged was critically flawed. The decision represents a major win for a coalition of environmental groups that challenged the controversial sale, calling it a "huge climate bomb.