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.
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The environmental analysis in question was conducted under the Trump administration, as reported by The Hill.
Contreras sent the decision back to the Interior Department to decide if it would like to go forward with the sale after a revised environmental review or ditch it entirely.
Several environmental groups were listed as plaintiffs in the court filing, including Friends of the Earth, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Healthy Gulf Executive Director Cynthia Sarthou called the decision a “victory for all Gulf communities.”
“Today, we can look forward to the day when we stop selling off our public waters for pennies on the dollar when a just transition to a clean energy future is critical to our very survival. Now, the Gulf can be seen as a viable field for offshore wind energy that will power our future,” Sarthou added.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department told the Washington Examiner it is “reviewing the decision.”
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Last January, the Biden administration issued a moratorium on all new oil and gas leasing for federal waters and lands, though the lease sale went forward after a federal judge temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s pause in June.
