Interior Department Plans Mega Oil & Gas Lease Auction

The Interior Department is gearing up for what’s called the biggest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States. The seventy seven million acres sits off the gulf coast of Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. The sale is set for next March and includes all available unleased areas on the Gulf's Outer Continental Shelf. The proposal surpasses a lease sale conducted last year by about a million acres. The plan follows a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico in August that drew one hundred and twenty million dollars in high bids from energy companies seeking 90 offshore tracts.