"Environmental justice concerns and climate costs were eliminated from assessment as the Trump administration seeks to overhaul its handling of the National Environmental Policy Act."

"After stripping consideration of environmental justice issues and climate costs from its final analysis of the project, President Donald Trump’s administration opened one of its first sales of oil and gas leases on federal land Thursday.

The offering by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management was a relatively small one—seven parcels covering 1,317 acres in southeastern New Mexico, in the oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin. But the administration used the sale to showcase its new pro-development approach to energy production, free of the constraints that bound President Joe Biden’s administration. Ultimately, BLM garnered $20.7 million from the sale, with 25 bidders competing for the tracts.

Ironically, environmental justice and climate considerations did not hold back the Biden administration when it came to the New Mexico sale. Like the Trump administration, it concluded that there would be no significant environmental impact to leasing the land. The Biden-led BLM had announced last November that it planned for the sale to go through."

Marianne Lavelle reports for Inside Climate News February 20, 2025. [2]