Earth Minute: Gulf of Mexico Ruling on Petroleum Sale

Last week, an 80 million acre oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico was invalidated after a federal judge ruled the auction did not properly analyze the impacts on climate change. The decision casts uncertainty over the future of U.S. federal offshore drilling. The ruling, which cancels 1.7 million acres of oil and gas leases from that sale, comes after a lawsuit filed in March by the environmental group Earthjustice on behalf of a coalition of groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Healthy Gulf and Friends of the Earth. According to an Earthjustice Senior Attorney, “We simply cannot continue to make investments in the fossil fuel industry to the peril of our communities and increasingly warming planet." Vacating the lease sale is a step in the right direction, but systemic change requires stopping all oil and gas development, and looking for ways to dramatically decrease our energy consumption. For the Earth Minute and the Sojourner Truth Show this is Theresa Church with Global Justice Ecology Project