Interior to offer largest oil and gas lease sale in US

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department said Tuesday it will propose the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States — nearly 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The sale, scheduled for next March, includes all available unleased areas on the Gulf’s Outer continental shelf, a reflection of the Trump administration’s strategy to maximize oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters.

Even so, only a small fraction of the tracts available are expected to receive bids. A similar lease sale in August drew bids on just 90 offshore tracts totaling about a half-million acres — less than 1 percent of the 76 million acres available.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke touted the upcoming sale as part of the administration’s bid to achieve what President Donald Trump calls “energy dominance” in the global market.

“In today’s low-price energy environment, providing the offshore industry access to the maximum amount of opportunities possible (will) spur local and regional economic dynamism and job creation,” Zinke said.

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Zinke and congressional Republicans were taking credit for an Obama-era policy to offer oil and gas leases from all available tracts in the Gulf, rather than separating the western and eastern Gulf areas from the more productive central Gulf region off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

“Republicans spent eight years alleging the Obama administration was killing oil and gas when they knew it wasn’t true,” Grijalva said. “Now they’re taking credit for lease sales made under the Obama leasing plan.”