The energy industry, led by a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., is taking the Biden administration to court after millions of acres were removed from a planned offshore natural gas and oil auction.

Lease sales

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in its final notice for Lease Sale 261, planned for Sept. 27, said 12,395 blocks would be available for gas and oil development on close to 67 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the Western, Central and Eastern Planning Areas of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

However, the proposed notice in March offered 73 million acres for gas and oil development. BOEM said it reduced the size of the GOM lease sale following a recent settlement with environmentalists, which required the federal government to set aside areas of the GOM to protect the...