Latest News

Oil industry, green groups challenge Biden offshore drilling plan

Oil and gas business and ecological groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration's fiveyear strategy to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

The petitions to a U.S. appeals court come 4 months after the Interior Department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing that consisted of just three sales, the most affordable considering that the federal government started releasing the schedules in 1980.

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas trade group, said it was challenging the policy because it would leave Americans at danger of depending on foreign energy sources.

Need for inexpensive, dependable energy is just growing, yet this administration has used every tool at its disposal to limit access to huge energy resources in federal waters, API General Counsel Ryan Meyers said in a declaration.

The petitions were submitted in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

An Interior Department representative declined to comment.

Environmental group Earthjustice filed a separate petition tough Interior's intend on behalf of eight other ecological organizations. They allege the federal agency stopped working to sufficiently consider the health impacts the offshore drilling plan would have on local communities.

(source: Reuters)