NPR. (2022, January 28). A federal judge canceled major oil and gas leases over climate change. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076281662/federal-judge-canceled-gulf-oil-and-gas-leases-climate-change
After a conference in Glasgow where president Biden stated that the United States was aiming for a greener future, his administration held the largest oil and gas lease sale in U.S. history. However, a federal judge ruled that this sale was illegal, as the Biden administration had failed to consider the costs to the world’s climate. The administration allegedly utilized an analysis conducted under Trump, which was considerably flawed. This lease would have allowed oil companies to purchase 80 million acres of land (twice the size of Florida) to use for fossil fuel extraction. Fortunately, the Biden administration has promised to review the country’s oil and gas leasing program to ensure its contribution to climate change.
I think that while it is unfortunate that our current administration was planning to allow oil companies to purchase a piece of land twice the size of Florida, it is also a major victory that this was blocked by a federal judge. This is crucial for two reasons. Firstly, it will give Biden a chance to make changes to Trump’s flawed analysis, so that a situation similar to this does not happen again. Additionally, this is an important situation because it will hopefully cause more judges to view issues like these through an environmental lens. Furthermore, this is an important story because it brings awareness to the severity of our current climate crisis. The fact that companies have the ability to purchase such large amounts of land to extract oil from is a major concern. It is crucial that instead of allowing mass crude oil extraction, we begin investing in clean energy such as nuclear power and solar.
I find it interesting to see the relation between past governments and how to present governments handle environmental situations. For example, in that article trumps administration had covered up some actions which might not have been the best environmentally. I think this is important when considering how to take care of our environment especially oil because it is a substance in high demand. a question I have is how much does the importance of the environment matter from government to government?
I definitely think that our governments should be more focused on taking care of the environment, as we only have one earth and if we continue to damage it there will be serious consequences.
I think governments need to be able to focus on more ecological impacts instead of economic. I think its good that the Biden administration is working to do MORE than the trump administration (which is a very low bar) but I think it is not nearly important enough to them and they need to create an actionable plan instead of pushing back the issue only doing enough to gain voter support. What do you think some possible solutions to this could be.
Disappointing to see Trump’s administration is still affecting the country with its agenda-pushing data. Glad to see this was overturned by a judge. What other cases have been deemed illegal by the court?
I like the thought, but what would the side effects be to using nuclear and solar power? There have got to be side effects to that.