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

The Biden administration admitted that a court decision did not compel it to lease vast tracts of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling, shortly before claiming it was legally obliged to do so when announcing the sell-off, the Guardian can reveal.

But a memo filed by the US Department of Justice before the lease sale acknowledges that this judgement does not force the government to auction off drilling rights to the gulf.

The rapid staging of the lease sale was not required by the courts and could have instead been delayed by a proper federal review of climate and other environmental impacts according to Earthjustice, an environmental group that is suing to halt the leases before they come into effect in February.

Biden has set a target for the US to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and the use of the huge amount of land and ocean overseen by the federal government is seen as critical to this goal. The production and consumption of fossil fuels on federal land causes about a quarter of all American greenhouse gas emissions and a president has broad unilateral powers to limit or expand oil, gas and coal development.