That’s a huge carbon bomb. The government admits that this lease sale could result in the production of more than a billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years. Generating an enormous amount of greenhouse gases from this lease sale threatens to undermine the climate progress this administration has made to date.
Underregulated oil and gas development has put Gulf Coast communities at risk for decades. This new sale invites more destruction and disasters for communities that are already suffering from rising temperatures, flooding, and pollution.
As communities across Southern California finish cleaning up after an oil spill and the Coast Guard grapples with 300 reported oil spills in the Gulf following Hurricane Ida, the Interior Department is greenlighting projects that expose communities to more pollution and move us farther away from meeting critical emission goals.
Every single one of those oil spills started with a lease sale — and all future leases will lock us into a future of climate-warming fossil fuels.
Photo Credits: A tension-leg oil production platform burns off unrecoverable gas and leaves a plume of smoke in the Gulf of Mexico. (Land By Sea / Getty Images)
