Big Oil, Green Groups Sue Over Biden's Offshore Drilling Plan for the Gulf

[Brenda]

Feb 13, 2024

Faced with a rapidly warming world that is hurtling toward terrifying tipping points, climate groups on Monday filed a lawsuit over the Biden administration's five-year plan for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico—and so did the fossil fuel industry.

Both suits target the 2024-29 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. When the plan was finalized in December, the U.S. Department of the Interior highlighted that it features the fewest lease sales in history—just three—and the Inflation Reduction Act ties offshore wind development to continued oil and gas leasing.

Friends of the Earth legal director Hallie Templeton said that "we are not surprised by this industry challenge, given its track record of suing every time the Biden administration makes any attempt to break free from fossil fuels."

"Our lawsuit is another stand for the Gulf ecosystem, its nearby communities, and all wildlife that continue to suffer at the hands of Big Oil," Templeton added.

The other groups joining the green groups' challenge to the five-year plan are Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club, and Turtle Island Restoration Network. According toReuters, both lawsuits were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The competing legal battles were launched as 21 protesters with the youth-led Sunrise Movement were arrested on Monday for blockading Biden's reelection campaign headquarters in Delaware and demanding that he declare a climate emergency.

https://www.sunrisemovement.org/about/

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gulf-of-mexico-oil-drilling

[Think. Again.]

1. Maybe Biden could take a page from...

...trump's book and ask the courts to stop any action on the leases while he delays these questions through the courts until oil become obsolete?