Last week, the Biden administration auctioned off 73.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to the oil and gas industry. Lease sale 259 is one of the largest offshore lease sales in U.S. history which could result in over a billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years. That’s nearly double the amount of oil expected from the Willow oil project, the drilling project on the Nothern Slope of Alaska that the Biden administration approved in March.
This excessively large lease sale in the Gulf unjustly imposes the burden of harmful industrial pollution onto Gulf communities, while lining the pockets of oil industry giants who are already reaping soaring profits. Toxic refinery emissions and other air pollutants are inevitable consequences of new drilling, and increase the risk of illnesses and chronic disease for people living and working nearby.
Continued oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico represents a clear, existential threat to the whale’s survival and recovery. Gulf of Mexico whales can recover as long as conditions improve, but that all depends on our actions.
