Biden Trims Gulf Oil Lease Area to Protect Rare Whale Habitat

The Biden administration plansto auction 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas development in a lease sale next month, cutting 9% from the initial proposal.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reduced the available territory by 6.4 million acres following a legal settlement with environmentalists to safeguard potential habitat of one of the world’s most endangered types of whales.

The agency is imposing new constraints on winning bidders in an effort to safeguard the species, the Rice’s whale, as federal regulators work to finalize plans to protect it. BOEM is also warning companies they ...