The Biden administration sought to restrict the offshore oil and gas lease sales.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans gave the Biden administration 37 days to move forward with the sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, dismissing challenges from environmental groups in a ruling on Tuesday.
The decision comes after a series of legal battles, primarily citing concerns over endangered whale species.
The three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the attempts by environmental groups to block the leases, which had been delayed due to legal challenges related to whale protections.
The pending sale, initially announced in March, faced delays from its original date on Sept. 27, extending to Nov. 8 amid ongoing legal disputes. In late October, the appeals court further postponed the sale pending arguments specifically addressing endangered whale species, scheduled for Nov. 13.
President Joe Biden had temporarily suspended federal drilling auctions early in his term as part of his climate agenda. However, the lease sales were compelled by the Inflation Reduction Act, mandating their occurrence in September.
In August, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) sought to modify the leases, reducing the available area by 6 million acres from the original 73 million acres to 67 million acres.
The changes also included restrictions on vessel speeds and additional requirements for personnel on industry vessels within certain leased areas. These alterations resulted from an agreement reached between federal agencies and environmental groups that sued in 2020, citing insufficient safeguards for whales.
The state of Louisiana, along with industry giants such as the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron, and Shell, filed a lawsuit aiming to reverse the acreage reduction and block the inclusion of whale-protective measures in the lease sale provisions. They argued that these actions by the administration violated the Inflation Reduction Act, which not only incentivized green energy but also promoted new drilling opportunities in the Gulf.
