Biden Scraps Offshore Oil Auctions in Alaska, Gulf of Mexico (1)

The Biden administration is scrapping planned auctions of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Cook Inlet -- a move that deepens uncertainty over the future of the US government’s offshore oil leasing program.

The Interior Department said in an emailed statement Wednesday it “will not move forward” with two Gulf lease auctions that were planned under former President Barack Obama “as a result of delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed sales.”

A separate sale of tracts in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, originally slated to occur last year, also is being ...