FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2021
DENVER—The Biden administration formally announced today that it will offer leases on more than 80,000,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies on November 17. The sale, which was originally planned by the Trump administration, could generate more than one billion barrels of oil over the coming decades.
The sale has the potential to release 723 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere over its lifetime—as much carbon as driving 157 million cars for a year. The size of the sale would make it the 5th largest state in America—larger than offering up all of New Mexico or Arizona to oil companies in a single day.
Following the Gulf sale, the Interior Department plans to offer leases on more than 700,000 acres of public land across the West, primarily in Wyoming and Colorado. The lease sales are happening despite the Interior Department taking no substantive actions to protect 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030, which is ostensibly President Biden’s goal.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Aaron Weiss:
“President Biden is doing Donald Trump’s bidding today. This lease sale will be devastating for the Earth’s climate, and set America back years on our path to a climate solution.
“Next month, President Biden will travel to Glasgow for the UN climate conference, where he will encourage other countries to do as he says, not as he does. Just days later, he will set the timer on a carbon bomb in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Oil companies are woefully unprepared for the effects of climate change. Hurricane Ida left a trail of destruction in the Gulf this summer, causing dozens of oil spills. Now President Biden is giving the green light to even more drilling, setting America up for another Deepwater Horizon.”
“President Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland must insist on a full accounting of the climate costs of these lease sales, and cancel or shrink them accordingly. While they are giving away America’s lands and waters to oil and gas CEOs, our children and grandchildren will bear the ultimate costs of their irresponsible actions.
“The White House must immediately release the Interior Department’s report on how to fix this rigged leasing system, and Secretary Haaland should exercise every inch of her discretion under the law to stop or dramatically reduce the upcoming onshore lease sales in the West.”
LEARN MORE
- After Hurricane Ida, Oil Infrastructure Springs Dozens of Leaks [New York Times]
- Storymap: Western public lands threatened by drilling under Biden [Westwise]
- Despite oil industry howling, companies are awash in public lands drilling permits [Westwise]
- America’s Public Lands Giveaway: Oil and gas companies are taking advantage of the broken oil and gas leasing system [Center for Western Priorities]
Photo: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management