By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Federal oil and gas lease sales are likely to be delayed while the Interior Department works out how to assess the climate impacts of these sales. The department did not use a crucial tool to measure those risks in a Saturday night court filing.

Although the length of this delay is not known, it was caused by a February 11 Louisiana federal court decision that prevented the Biden administration using the “social Cost of Carbon” (an interim estimate at $50 per ton greenhouse gas emitted) to account for climate change risks in federal federal decision-making regarding permitting, investments, and regulatory matters.

This decision complicates the Interior Department’s compliance with another court ruling by D.C. federal court judges in January. The judge invalidated the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sales results because it failed to account for climate change.

“Certain activities associated with its [Interior’s]”Fossil fuel leasing and permit programs will be affected by Louisiana v. Biden injunction,” said the Department of Justice.

The Interior Department claimed that it had been using carbon’s social cost to consider climate change risks in its rules for new lease sales. It also said there were delays in leasing and permitting oil and natural gas projects. 

Administration had planned onshore leasing sales in many states for this quarter.

A draft notice published last month indicated that the Biden administration considered raising the royalty rate for oil and gas leases to 18.75%, from 12.5%.