Department of Interior

Some Republican members of Congress have denounced the Biden administration’s recent move to withdraw hundreds of square miles of federal land in New Mexico from oil and gas development.

Controversial Sale 259 was conducted as mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The approval adds momentum to the Alaska North Slope’s production revival.

The proposed sale notice consists of more than 300,000 acres in three designated areas offshore Louisiana and Texas.

Environmental report recommends shrinking the Alaska project to three drilling sites from the five initially proposed by ConocoPhillips.

The sale had 307 valid high bids worth more than $190 million.

The $25 million is an initial grant from the recent Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last November.

The three US lease auctions were the last planned under the current 5-year federal leasing plan.

The U.S. Interior Department said it can move forward with planning for oil and gas leasing on federal lands after previous delays stemming from a court move blocking a climate accounting tool.

The DOI guidance explains how states can apply for the first $775 million in grant funding available this year under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create jobs cleaning up polluted and unsafe orphaned oil and gas wellsites across the country.