Days After Climate Summit, Biden To Hold ‘Carbon Bomb’ Gulf Oil Sale

LOADING ERROR LOADING When President Joe Biden spoke about fossil fuels during a Democratic presidential debate in March 2020, he promised to “take on the fossil fuel industry” and rapidly transition the nation away from planet-warming fossil fuels. Ends.” Environmental advocates say Biden is breaking that pledge now as the administration prepares to hold the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history on Nov. 17. via Associated Press Sam Kalen, a natural resources law professor at the University of Wyoming, called the Louisiana judge’s ruling as it pertains to offshore leasing “quite questionable.” If a non-governmental organization were to file a complaint seeking to enjoin the upcoming Gulf sale on legitimate grounds — for example, a faulty environmental analysis — then the administration could opt to postpone the auction pending a resolution in court, he said. “But it’s not at all inconsistent in that no one has anticipated that this year we’d be in a position — or even next year — that we’re not going to use any more oil or gas; that we’re not going to be engaged in any fossil fuels.” John Kerry, the Biden administration’s special climate envoy and lead COP26 negotiator, echoed that position. “Claiming that we’re only taking short term action to foster oil and gas production while we make the transition on the one hand, and on the other hand selling a carbon bomb of a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico that can’t go to production for close to 10 years — there’s no way to square that circle,” Caputo said.