A federal court had thrown out a Bush-era leasing plan on environmental grounds. But it’s not clear whether the ruling applies to tracts in the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration will auction off a new batch of oil-drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico next month, in spite of a court ruling this year that threw out the nation’s offshore leasing plan.
Officials from the Minerals Management Service, an arm of the Interior Department, gave notice Thursday that they would take bids for drilling on 18 million acres off Texas. The leasing tracts are as close as nine miles from shore and as far as 250.