US auctions off oil and gas drilling leases in Gulf of Mexico after climate talks

Biden administration launching auction of more than 80m acres for fossil fuel extraction that experts call incredibly reckless'

Just four days after landmark climate talks in Scotland in which Joe Biden vowed the US will lead by example" in tackling dangerous global heating, the president's own administration is providing a jarring contradiction - the largest ever sale of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

The US federal government is on Wednesday launching an auction of more than 80m acres of the gulf for fossil fuel extraction, a record sell-off that will lock in years, and potentially decades, of planet-heating emissions.