Gulf & Environment Groups Respond To Public Waters Sell-off To Oil Industry

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Amid Soaring Energy & Gas Prices, Trump Admin Draws Far Fewer Bids Than Dec. Sale

NEW ORLEANS — Gulf and environmental groups responded to the Trump administration’s latest large-scale sell-off of public waters to the oil-and-gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico today.

The Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held its 80-million acre offshore oil-and-gas auction from New Orleans — the second of 30 planned Gulf sales through 2040 mandated by the Trump-Republican tax-and-spending law.

“The Trump administration is ignoring the law to allow oil and gas companies to pollute our public waters and pad their bottom lines,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program. “Offshore drilling is one of the riskiest, dirtiest, and most hazardous kinds of oil extraction, incompatible with coastal economies or ecosystems. Not only has this administration mandated nearly 30 lease sales to expand offshore drilling across thousands of miles of America’s coastline, it just changed the rules to let Big Oil CEOs off the hook for the environmental messes they leave behind – and leave taxpayers holding the bag. This will have devastating consequences for coastal ecosystems, wildlife, and communities.”

The Trump administration received substantially fewer bids compared to its first sale in December, on 25 blocks compared to 181 blocks and generating just $46.9 million versus $300 million. Last week, the Trump administration received zero bids for its first offshore oil-and-gas sale in Cook Inlet, Alaska. The Trump administration has argued that expanding fossil fuels, including by selling off public lands and waters to oil-and-gas companies, will alleviate the increasing energy bills American households have been reckoning with, which have been made worse by recent geopolitical instability that is also causing gas prices to soar.

Meanwhile, for today’s and the 28 remaining Gulf sales, the Trump administration is unlawfully excluding the public from weighing in on the risks. The administration is also proceeding with these sales without analyzing how they could expose the entire region to catastrophic oil spills, harm endangered species like the Rice’s whale, and leave behind a dangerous legacy of defunct oil wells, pipelines, and platforms. (And last week the Trump administration just proposed weakening baseline financial bonding requirements for companies, shifting the eventual cleanup costs of abandoned infrastructure with taxpayers).

The oil-and-gas industry’s newly acquired leases of public waters in the Gulf could lock in decades of continued fossil fuel pollution for Gulf communities that live in proximity to refineries. New fossil fuel extraction will also worsen planet-warming emissions that have led to more extreme weather, including increasingly powerful hurricanes in the Gulf.

While BOEM received far fewer bids than in December, today’s sale saw 95 percent of bids go to deep or ultra-deepwater areas, the continuation of a growing trend of industry pushing into substantially deeper areas of the Gulf in pursuit of a new era of deepwater drilling defined by high-risk projects. One of these projects, called “Kaskida,” would be developed by BP, and serve as the U.K.-based company’s first completely new oilfield in the Gulf since its 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster — the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Members of Congress have urged the Trump administration to reject Kaskida. A decision is expected by the end of this week.

Gulf and environmental groups issued the following statements following today’s sale:

“The impacts to the Gulf have not been analyzed for this or any other proposed lease sales. The Trump Administration is committing economic and ecological negligence by repeatedly succumbing to the oil industry. Our Gulf Stream waters flow past the Keys and into the Atlantic, yet this new lease sale fails to examine the impact of oiling from risky deepwater drilling onto ecosystems near and far,” said Martha Collins, executive director of Healthy Gulf. “Why are we letting oil companies drill deeper with untested technology after they have laid off thousands of staff, including Houston engineers who could ensure safety for workers, the economy, and the environment. We know from the long travail of Louisiana, one of our nation’s poorest states, that this cost is not worth it.”

“The oil-and-gas industry has caused irreparable harm to the Gulf Coast for decades. An additional 80 million acres being opened for more drilling will cause further damage to a landscape that is actively recovering from past oil spills and neglect,” says Coastal Botanist Alease Aloe Lee, The Surfrider Foundation, Louisiana. “The administration’s decision to disregard the law and its required assessments on how this expansion will impact Gulf flora and fauna is undermining the importance of scientific data. These sales are allowing even more destruction to plague our oceans while also signaling to Gulf residents that we are being intentionally left out of decisions impacting where we live. Coastal communities deserve full transparency on how offshore drilling really affects their health and environment.”

Central and western coastal communities in the Gulf already struggle with pollution and health impacts from oil operations, along with aging infrastructure, oil leaks, and spills that devastate coastal economies, marine wildlife, and habitat”, said Joanie Steinhaus, Ocean Program Director for Turtle Island Restoration Network. “The administration continues to open the Gulf to further leases, while the oil and gas industry currently holds over 2,000 leases with approximately 80% remaining unused, and another 10,000+ neglected wells that sit idle and unplugged. Ocean and coastal waters belong to the public, not the oil and gas industry.”

“The Trump administration’s decision to move forward with massive offshore oil and gas lease sales while shutting the public out of the process is deeply irresponsible,” said Mary Gutierrez, Earth and Atmospheric Scientist with Earth Ethics, Inc. “Opening 80 million acres of the Gulf to drilling without fully analyzing the risks of catastrophic oil spills, threats to endangered species like the Rice’s whale, and the long-term burden of abandoned infrastructure puts Gulf communities and ecosystems in harm’s way. At a time when stronger hurricanes and rising seas are already battering this region, doubling down on fossil fuel extraction will only worsen the climate crisis. Instead of locking the Gulf into decades more pollution and shifting cleanup costs onto taxpayers, federal leaders should be prioritizing the protection of coastal communities, marine wildlife, and a safer energy future.”

“Despite skyrocketing energy costs and prices at the pump, today’s sale saw the oil industry bid among the lowest it has in the Gulf over the past decade. Combined with last week’s sale in Alaska waters that attracted zero bids, it’s clear that even the oil industry is not on board with the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda,” said Earthjustice senior attorney George Torgun. “Even so, the Trump administration’s sell-off of the Gulf was done by completely shutting out local communities and industries from having any input. This unacceptable giveaway to the oil industry will endanger the public health of millions of people in the Gulf, and put the whole region at risk of devastating oil spills from Texas to Florida.”

“The Trump administration is ramping up oil lease sales through 2040, and it is doing it without the assessments the law requires—no real accounting of oil spill risks, no honest look at what this does to the Rice’s whale,” said Irene Gutierrez, Senior Attorney, NRDC. “At the same time, it is trying to weaken safety rules designed to prevent the next Deepwater Horizon-type catastrophic oil spill. The administration is undercutting environmental protections and community input at every turn, and Gulf communities are going to be living with the fallout for decades.”

“A lease sale is the first step toward an oil spill catastrophe,” said Oceana Campaign Director Joseph Gordon. “This latest offshore drilling lease was mandated by Congress in the worst environmental bill in American history, and it will recklessly open millions of acres of our ocean to drilling and spilling. We need to protect our coasts, not destroy them.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.