On Thursday, a federal judge threw out the Department of Interior’s decision to lease more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas production — the largest offshore auction in U.S. history. The sale, which came just days after Biden vowed to “lead by example” in cutting emissions during U.N. climate talks in Scotland, could have resulted in 600 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Guardian analysis of Interior Department data.

In a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and others, the groups argued that the environmental analysis conducted under the Trump administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act by vastly underestimating the proposed sale’s climate impacts. In its assessment of the five-year leasing plan, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concluded that the climate impacts would be worse if the leases went unsold because it would result in an increase in less-regulated development overseas. 

In his decision, Washington D.C. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras agreed, ruling that the Biden administration relied […]