NEW ORLEANS — The US Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions, according to AP.
The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometres) — about twice the area of Florida.
It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.
The auction comes after a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by Republican states rejected a suspension of fossil fuel sales that Biden imposed when he took office.
The Democrat campaigned on promises to curb fossil fuels from public lands and waters, which including coal account for about a quarter of US carbon emissions, according to the US Geological Survey. Yet even as he’s tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening international efforts against global warming, Wednesday’s sale illustrates Biden’s difficulties gaining ground on climate issues at home.
The administration last week proposed another round of oil and gas lease sales in 2022, in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other western states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.
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