The Interior Department advanced plans for offshore oil and gas drilling Friday by releasing a draft environmental review, though the next planned lease sale could be delayed until 2026 unless Republicans accelerate the timeline.
The new analysis from Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is part of the federal oil and gas leasing program for the Gulf of Mexico. Interior’s current five-year offshore leasing plan, published last December, includes just three lease sales in the basin from 2025 to 2029.
BOEM’s latest assessment studied the effects of four leasing options on marine, coastal and human environments, including a regionwide lease sale. Under a proposed scenario, the impact on resources such as air quality, birds and recreational fishing was often described as “negligible.” But a tentative BOEM timeline posted online showed that a final environmental impact statement won’t be released until September 2025, with a record of decision in January 2026.
The bureau “anticipates completing the leasing and environmental review and consultation steps for Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 262, the first lease sale proposed in the 2024-2029 Program, in a timely manner to support a potential sale in early 2026,” BOEM spokesperson John Filostrat said in an email on Friday to POLITICO’s E&E News.
