Trump to auction off a vast swath of the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies – Gulf is now “a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry”

Desdemona Despair

By Darryl Fears
24 October 2017

(The Washington Post) – The Trump administration made history Tuesday in proposing that nearly 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico be made available for companies wanting to purchase federal oil and gas leases — the largest offering ever in the United States.

In announcing the sale, the Interior Department compared the targeted waters to “about the size of New Mexico” and said the first lease sales off Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are scheduled for March next year. The event will include “all available unleased areas on the Gulf’s Outer Continental Shelf,” a statement said.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke first broached such a sale shortly after he took office in March 2017, proposing to offer 73 million acres for leases. This part of the Gulf was the scene of arguably the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent spill of 215 million gallons of crude that fouled beaches from Louisiana to Florida.

Years later, the spill’s effects are still being felt, according to a report by the nonprofit group Oceana.

Scientists have detected hydrocarbons from the well in 90 percent of pelican eggs more than 1,000 miles away in Minnesota, where the birds spend summer after wintering along the gulf. Dolphins living in Barataria, La., have experienced mortality rates 8 percent higher than dolphin populations elsewhere, and their reproduction success dropped 63 percent.

British Petroleum, which owned the operation, had paid penalties in excess of $61 billion as of July 2016. […]

Few conservation groups reacted to Interior’s announcement Tuesday, although several had called the unprecedented lease sale “a terrible idea” when Zinke first discussed it this spring. Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, said it similarly opposed a bid by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, to open up 66 million acres to leases last year.

Manuel hinted at the reasons behind the muted response Tuesday. It’s “not really news,” he said of the actual announcement. While larger in scale, it is not significantly different from what Obama proposed. The gulf, Manuel said, has become “a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry.” [more]

Trump to auction off a vast swath of the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies