Federal Judge Blocks Gulf of Mexico Drilling Leases

A federal judge invalidated the lease sale of 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico that the U.S. Department of Interior had made available for oil and gas drilling, saying regulators used flawed environmental analysis.

In a 68-page ruling on Thursday, Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., called the federal agency’s error in its environmental-impact determination “a serious failing.”