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With Baton Rouge Still Underwater, Gov’t Auctions Off Gulf Oil Leases

HeadlineAug 25, 2016

In Louisiana, the Interior Department’s massive lease sale for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico attracted a record low number of bids on Wednesday. Only three companies expressed any interest, bidding on only 24 of the more than 4,000 tracts. Industry experts blamed low oil prices for the low number of bids. On Tuesday, four environmental activists were arrested protesting the lease sale—which came only one day after President Obama toured flood-damaged neighborhoods in Baton Rouge. Some areas are still submerged in feet of standing water, two weeks after the floods. The rainfall in Baton Rouge is the worst it’s been in recorded history, in close to 175 years.

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