Gulf of Mexico Oil Lease Sale Sent Back to Interior for Review

Environmental groups were partially successful in their challenge to how the Interior Department conducted its analysis of the effects of a massive Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sale.

Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday agreed with the groups that a new analysis completed after the lawsuit was filed doesn’t mean the case shouldn’t continue. However, Mehta found setting aside the lease sale approval from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also wasn’t an option.

Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, and others claimed in 2023 that BOEM’s supplemental environmental ...