The Trump administration decided to auction off millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the oil industry without any consideration of the environmental harms. That is a threat to Louisiana’s communities, wildlife, waters and vital industries.
But it isn’t just bad policy — it’s illegal.
As the U.S. Congress required in its “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, held a region-wide Gulf lease sale on Wednesday, March 11. It’s the second of 30 Gulf lease sales required by Congress; the first one was held in December 2025.
The lease sales aren’t anything new for the Gulf, which has long been a sacrifice zone for the oil industry. But, unlike the dozens of lease sales in years prior, the Trump administration rammed these through without doing any environmental review.
This is illegal and goes against the commonsense “look before you leap” principle of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), one of the country’s bedrock environmental laws.
That’s why the Center for Biological Diversity, along with its allies Healthy Gulf, Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Earthjustice, are suing the administration to block leasing under the December sale.
NEPA is a Nixon-era law that requires federal agencies to understand the ecological consequences of their actions, gauge public opinion, and consider less harmful alternatives before moving forward with major projects.
Before NEPA, federal agencies could push through dangerous, unpopular and environmentally catastrophic projects, regardless of how locals felt. As a result, Americans suffered — our air was dirtier, our rivers and lakes were more polluted, and public opinion took a back seat to the profits of big corporations.
The Trump administration’s defiance of NEPA is taking us back to this dark era.
What makes this onslaught of lease sales different from any other is our emerging understanding that the Gulf is littered with derelict wells, platforms and pipelines that oil corporations aren’t cleaning up.
There are more idle wells (wells that no longer produce oil or gas) than active ones. At least 75% of end-of-lease and idle oil infrastructure off the Gulf Coast is overdue for decommissioning. Hundreds of these wells have sat idle for more than a decade, some far longer. These wells are dangerous and can leak oil into the water and spew methane into the atmosphere.
In April, Well 59 — an 82-year-old idle well in Louisiana state waters — spewed tens of thousands of gallons of pollutants into the state’s sensitive wetlands. The spill drifted into critical ocean habitat for federally protected loggerhead sea turtles, piping plovers, and Rice’s whale. There are also numerous examples of “mystery sheens,” unidentified oil films, that stem from old offshore platforms and wellheads.
For decades, oil corporations have avoided their cleanup obligations, selling off their lower-producing wells to smaller companies, leaving their infrastructure to sit idle for some purported future use, or going bankrupt and deserting their platforms. Even though many of these companies raked in enormous profits while their wells were active, their attempts to evade cleanup obligations lead to persistent safety and environmental hazards.
Yet BOEM and the Trump administration’s new lease sales are barreling forward without any consideration of how more drilling will worsen the idle well crisis. Several companies that ultimately bid during these sales have high numbers of wells awaiting decommissioning.
Companies need money for both oil exploration and decommissioning their old wells. But there’s a much greater financial incentive behind exploration, since the money spent will likely pay off in future profits. That means the companies that were awarded new leases have every incentive to focus on their new investment and neglect the old ones. This is the last thing we need when around half of the 8,000 wells in federal waters are near or past the end of their useful lives. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to drill new wells when they haven’t yet cleaned up their old ones.
This lease sale is just one of many examples of the Trump administration steering our country back to a time when Americans were less healthy and safe. We saw a bleak warning last month after an offshore facility experienced a mechanical failure and spilled about 31,500 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf near Grand Isle. The spill happened during Louisiana’s peak bird migration season, and so far at least 17 oiled birds have been reported. The spill also stymied the planned release of rehabilitated sea turtles.
It’s yet another reminder that there’s no such thing as clean oil production — the industry leaves scars during every step of the process. That’s why the Center for Biological Diversity will continue to fight to stop this attack on our oceans.
The next lease sale will be held in August, and dozens more will follow, none of them subjected to an environmental review unless our lawsuit succeeds. Congress should act now to repeal the leasing mandated by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” If these companies break ground, it will set a dangerous precedent for the Gulf and all of America’s coastal waters.
Rachel Mathews is a senior attorney in the Center for Biological Diversity’s Oceans program and a graduate of Tulane Law School.
