As a significant victory for environmental campaigners, a US federal court has overturned a huge offshore oil and gas lease sale on the basis that the auction had failed to take full account of impacts on climate.

On Thursday, Rudolph Contreras, a district court judge for the District of Columbia, said the government had incorrectly modelled the emissions that would result from the development of the leases.

Devorah Ancel, senior attorney at the Sierra Club said, “The Biden administration’s failure to adequately evaluate the climate impacts of this massive lease sale wasn’t just out of step with their stated commitment to climate action, it was also illegal.”

In November, US president Joe Biden’s administration in the largest auction in US history, had reluctantly opened 80m acres of drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, the move drew accusations from environmental groups that criticised Biden administration for contradicting his pledge to lead a “transition” away from oil.

“This is huge,” said Brettny Hardy, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups that brought the lawsuit.

“This requires the bureau to go back to the drawing board and actually consider the climate costs before it offers these leases for sale, and that’s really significant,” Hardy said.

She added, “Once these leases are issued, there’s development that’s potentially locked in for decades to come that is going to hurt our global climate.”

Now the Interior Department must conduct a new environmental analysis that accounts for the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the eventual development and production of the leases. After that, the agency will have to decide whether it will hold a new auction.

Image credit: AP