Fighting for the Gulf in Court

In late January 2022, a federal judge revoked a Biden administration oil and gas lease sale offering over 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. The court ruled that the Department of Interior failed to adequately assess the climate impacts of the drilling. The sale was challenged by a coalition including Friends of the Earth and Earthjustice, who argued that the project would exacerbate systemic racism in frontline communities and threaten endangered species such as Bryde’s and Rice’s whales.

• A federal judge in late January 2022 revoked an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico because the Department of Interior failed to properly evaluate the climate impacts of the proposed drilling.
• The contested lease sale offered more than 80 million acres—an area twice the size of Florida—and was described as the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history.
• The document asserts that offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico disproportionately harms Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-wealth communities and threatens endangered species, specifically Bryde’s and Rice’s whales.

APA

Fox, A. (2022). Fighting for the Gulf in Court. Friends of the Earth. https://foe.org/victory-stories/fighting-for-the-gulf-in-court/

Chicago

Fox, Audrey. Fighting for the Gulf in Court. Friends of the Earth, 2022. https://foe.org/victory-stories/fighting-for-the-gulf-in-court/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Fox |first1=Audrey |title=Fighting for the Gulf in Court |publisher=Friends of the Earth |date=9 March 2022 |url=https://foe.org/victory-stories/fighting-for-the-gulf-in-court/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fox2022fighting, author = {Fox, Audrey}, title = {{Fighting for the Gulf in Court}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth}, year = {2022}, month = mar, url = {https://foe.org/victory-stories/fighting-for-the-gulf-in-court/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }