Biden Administration Faces Legal Challenge Over Gulf Lease Amendments

Oil industry consortium, including API and Chevron, joins legal action against Biden administration over Gulf of Mexico lease changes, citing restrictions and violation of lease sale requirements.

An oil rig near the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans, on April 28, 2010. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Public sector oil groups have joined a Republican state attorney general in bringing suit against the Biden administration’s Department of the Interior over changes to a Gulf of Mexico lease sales amended to protect the endangered Rice’s whale.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has joined forces with the State of Louisiana and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. in lodging a formal challenge (pdf) on Aug. 24 against the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Management’s (BOEM) Final Notice of Sale for Lease Sale 261.