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The Biden administration held a massive Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale on Wednesday, resisting pleas from climate activists to block all new fossil fuel leasing.
The sale — titled Lease Sale 259 and organized by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in New Orleans — offered a staggering 73.3 million acres of federal waters for oil and gas drilling to energy developers. While the administration abruptly canceled Lease Sale 259 last year, President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act mandated that the federal government reinstate the sale by March 31.
Overall, the sale garnered bids worth $263.8 million for 313 tracts spanning 1.6 million acres. The sale is among the largest in U.S. history, smaller than only the 80.8-million-acre Lease Sale 257, held in 2021, and six sales held during the Trump administration.
While the fossil fuel industry applauded Lease Sale 259 on Wednesday, it reiterated previous calls for consistent leasing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Biden administration has only held offshore oil and gas lease sales when mandated to do so by congressional action and has repeatedly delayed finalizing a plan for future auctions.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House Conservation In Action Summit at the Interior Department on March 21. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
"While today’s lease sale is a belated but positive step toward a more energy-secure future, it should not take an act of Congress to get us to this point," Holly Hopkins, the American Petroleum Institute's vice president of upstream policy, said in a statement.
"Continued production in the Gulf of Mexico is essential for delivering the energy the world needs while supporting lower carbon goals, but U.S. energy producers need certainty from policymakers in order to meet the growing energy demand," she continued.
Hopkins specifically called for the Interior Department to finalize a long-overdue five-year offshore leasing plan. Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented under the Trump administration, expired in June.
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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks on July 23, 2021, in Grand Junction, Colorado. (McKenzie Lange/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel via AP)
The 2017-2022 five-year plan included the lease sale held Wednesday, Lease Sale 257 which the administration was forced to reinstate, and Lease Sales 258 and 261, two other previously-canceled sales the Inflation Reduction Act mandated.
"It is well past time for the Department of the Interior to finalize a five-year program for federal offshore leasing that will empower U.S. energy producers to meet the needs of consumers here at home and around the world," Hopkins stated.
National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito added that Gulf of Mexico offshore energy production is a "key component" of a national energy strategy that ensures energy for Americans. Milito also echoed Hopkins in calling for a finalized five-year plan.
"The preceding gap in leasing underscores why the next federal offshore oil and gas leasing program must be finalized and implemented as quickly as possible," Milito said.
"Policies that restrict domestic offshore development require imports to make up the shortfall, and that supplemental production comes from higher-emitting operations in other countries to the detriment of our energy security, economic wellbeing, and emissions and climate progress."
Oil drilling platforms are pictured in 2021 in federal waters. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)
Meanwhile, environmental groups led by Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit this month challenging the Biden administration's authority to hold Lease Sale 259. The coalition — which included Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resources Defense Council — argued that the Interior Department didn't properly assess the "grave climate impacts of such a massive new source of fossil fuel development."
The groups added the administration would counteract its commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions if it held the sale.
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"The excessive and reckless scope of today’s oil and gas lease sale demonstrates how badly our federal leasing program needs reform," Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said in a statement Wednesday.
"The Biden Administration is not only holding a lease sale that is at odds with the law — but also succumbing to the wants of a profit-rich industry over the well-being of Gulf communities, vital ecosystems, and our urgent climate goals," he said.
The Inflation Reduction Act represented a rare instance in which climate-focused Democratic lawmakers, who otherwise oppose fossil fuel drilling, voted in favor of massive oil and gas lease sales. Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, told Fox News Digital in January that the legislation was a "process of balance."
Fox News' Emily Robertson contributed to this report.
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