The Biden Administration Must Take Climate Change Into Account Under the Law –

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a first of its kind decision with far reaching implications for the battle against climate change and potentially the fossil fuel economy, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in favor of environmental groups against the U.S. Department of the Interior to cancel the largest sale of oil and gas leases ever on 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.

Writing for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Rudolph Contreras, a judge of Cuban descent appointed to the court by President Barack Obama in 2011, issued the ruling saying the Biden administration did not sufficiently take climate change into account under the National Environmental Policy Act when it put the leases up for auction last year.

The non-profit environmental group Earth Justice filed the lawsuit on behalf of other groups, including Healthy Gulf out of New Orleans, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth against Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, following the notice of lease sale 257, the largest lease sale ever based on a plan put forward by the Trump administration in 2017.

The lawsuit argued that the 2017 environmental analysis used by the Biden administration to hold the sale was “fatally flawed,” and the judge agreed.

The sale was not only counter to the administration’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 and meet international climate commitments. It was illegal and based on previously debunked environmental analysis, the groups claimed.

The federal court decision holds the Interior Department accountable under the law for “grossly underestimating the climate impacts and risks to Gulf communities” before deciding to hold the largest oil and gas lease sale in the country’s history.

The Gulf of Mexico, the scene of the largest and most devastating environmental disaster in U.S. history in 2010 with the BP oil spill, has long been seen by environmentalists as a dumping ground for pollution and open for business by polluting fossil fuels companies in a region often without the political will to fight back.

“This ruling ensures our waters and coasts will be protected from additional harmful drilling and eventual spills in the Gulf, where the fossil fuel industry is already sitting on 8 million acres of leases on public waters,” Earth Justice said in an announcement on its website.

A clean energy transition is essential for Gulf communities and the increasingly warming planet, they say. “Instead of expanding harmful drilling, we must meet this once-in-a-lifetime moment to protect our public lands and waters and move away from our reliance on fossil fuels. ” 

By vacating the Interior Department’s decision to go forward with the lease sale based on the priorities of the Trump regime and against the Biden’s administration’s stated goals,  “the court has  ensured that  no  harm  will  result  from  it,” the environmentalists say.

“Whatever Interior decides to do, it  must  start with a blank slate and consider  the full environmental costs  associated with auctioning off our public  waters to the fossil fuel industry.  We’re confident that a full assessment will lead to the undeniable conclusion that holding a lease sale will cause irreparable harm to Gulf communities and the climate. ” 

Earthjustice’s Senior Attorney, Brettny Hardy, said the group was pleased with the court’s decision.

“We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet,” Hardy said. “This administration must meet this critical moment and honor the campaign promises President Biden made by stopping offshore leasing once and for all. Interior should use its next 5-year leasing plan to protect our coastal communities and public waters and offer no new offshore leases. We can no longer afford to do anything less.”  

Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of Healthy Gulf, called the decision a victory for all Gulf communities impacted by the onshore pollution from offshore drilling in the Gulf.

“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,” Sarthou said. “Now, the Gulf can be seen as a viable field for offshore wind energy that will power our future.”

Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the court decision “a huge victory for our climate, Rice’s whales and Gulf communities.”

“I’m thrilled the court saw through the Biden administration’s horribly reckless decision to hold the largest oil lease sale in U.S. history without carefully studying the risks,” Monsell said. “New oil leases are fundamentally incompatible with addressing the climate emergency and they’ll cause more oil spills and harm to wildlife and people in the Gulf. For the sake of our climate and frontline communities, the Biden administration must end new leasing and phase out existing drilling. Anything less would be a gross failure of climate leadership.”

“The Biden administration’s failure to adequately evaluate the climate impacts of this massive lease sale wasn’t just out of step with their stated commitment to climate action, it was also illegal,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Devorah Ancel. “We are glad that the court has held them accountable for this reckless action, and we will continue to fight to protect Gulf Coast communities from the dangers of offshore drilling and climate chaos.”

According to breaking news coverage of the case in The New York Times, the Interior Department must conduct a new environmental analysis that accounts for the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the eventual development and production of the leases. After that, the agency will have to decide whether it will hold a new auction.

Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Department of the Interior, said the agency was reviewing the decision.

So far they have not responded to our request for public comment.

As a candidate, Biden promised to stop issuing new leases for drilling on public lands and in federal waters.

“And by the way, no more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period,” Biden told voters in New Hampshire in February 2020. Shortly after taking office, he signed an executive order to pause the issuing of new leases.

But after Republican attorneys general from 13 states sued, a federal judge in Louisiana blocked that order, and also ruled that the administration must hold lease sales in the Gulf that had already been scheduled.

Biden administration officials have said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland risked being held in contempt of court if the auction was not held. Environmental groups, however, argued that the administration had other options, including doing a new analysis to examine the ways that the burning of oil extracted from the Gulf would contribute to climate change.

Scott Lauermann, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and gas companies, said in a statement: “We are reviewing this disappointing decision and considering our options. Offshore energy development plays a critical role in strengthening our nation’s economy and energy security.”

Companies had argued to the court that vacating the lease sale would compromise the confidential bids that were submitted for the tracts, making their competitors aware of who was bidding on what, and for how much.

Shell, BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil offered $192 million for the rights to drill in about 1.7 million acres in the area offered by the government. Though the sale occurred on Nov. 17, the leases have not yet been issued.

The judge said in his ruling that the Interior Department “acted arbitrarily and capriciously in excluding foreign consumption from their greenhouse gas emissions” and that it was required to do so under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which says the government must consider ecological damage when deciding whether to permit drilling and construction projects.

Any disruptions that revoking the lease sales might cause, he wrote, “do not outweigh the seriousness of the NEPA error in this case and the need for the agency to get it right.”

Emissions from burning fossil fuels produced on federal lands and waters account for about 25 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

But despite its bold promises, the Biden administration has moved cautiously over the past year on whether to restrict drilling. With gas prices rising and Republicans eager to blame the administration, environmental activists have accused the administration of sacrificing aggressive action for political expediency.

In November, for example, the Interior department issued a long-awaited report that was supposed to determine the future of federal oil and gas leasing. It skirted the question of ending the practice and instead recommended the government charge companies higher rates to drill.

Oil industry executives said Thursday they are counting on the Biden administration to appeal the court ruling, but that is no legal or political certainty.

“At a time of geopolitical uncertainty and rapidly rising energy prices, U.S. oil and gas production is more important than ever to curb inflation and to fortify our national security,” Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore energy companies, said in a statement.

Environmental groups said they want the administration to live up to its campaign promises.

Hallie Templeton, Legal Director at Friends of the Earth, called the decision “a victorious outcome not only for the Gulf’s communities, wildlife, and ecosystem, but also for the warming planet.“

“But the fight is not over,” she said. “We will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable for making unlawful decisions that contradict its pledge to take swift, urgent action on ‘code red’ climate and environmental justice priorities.”

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