Oil companies bid millions for Gulf of Mexico drilling rights in climate compromise auction.

The Biden administration has auctioned off a large stretch of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, drawing bids of $263 million from companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell. Environmentalists have criticized the move, which comes just two weeks after the Willow oil-drilling project in Alaska was allowed to proceed, as a step backwards in the fight against climate change. The auction was required by last year's Inflation Reduction Act, which banned leasing of public lands for renewable energy unless leases were first offered for fossil-fuel development.