The Biden Administration recently offered leases for sale to oil and gas companies to allow drilling on 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. One might think that the oil and gas industry would be thrilled to win access to a vast swath of the Gulf from Texas to Florida. But the industry sued because the administration plans to block drilling on a small percentage of the underwater acres to protect a threatened species of whale: the Rice’s whale. Only about 51 of these critically endangered baleen whales are believed to survive in the world. We talk to Brendan Gibbons, Editor and Writer for Oil & Gas Watch News, about the legal battle over drilling and conservation. We also tackle a broader subject: Why the Biden Administration, which pledged to cut back on drilling to fight climate change, is allowing record levels of oil and gas extraction in the U.S. You can read Brendan’s full article here.
