Revealed: Biden administration was not legally bound to auction gulf drilling rights

The decision to go ahead with the sale has damaged Biden’s climate credentials after the Cop26 talks in Glasgow where he said the US would “lead by example” in slashing greenhouse gas emissions. The president, who has called the climate crisis an “existential threat” to the US, said in a Democratic primary debate last year that under his administration there would be “no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”

This jarring contradiction has alarmed even some of Biden’s closest allies, with three Democratic members of Congress filing a brief last week with the federal court calling for a halt to the gulf lease sales. The three admitted that they are “deeply concerned” and “shocked” that the government is pushing ahead with the drilling “despite its own findings that the largest lease sale in history has not had an adequate environmental rights​.”

Unconscionable. :-( The US should have to fight for a seat at any climate conference from here on. Actions needed, ‘cause their words mean nothing.