Oil and gas companies on Wednesday purchased rights to drill across more than 1.7 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico, an area larger than the state of Delaware, locking in fossil fuel development that won’t begin for years but will likely last for decades.
The offshore lease sale — the largest in U.S. history — offered up more than 80 million acres of the Gulf to oil and gas interests at a time when scientists are warning that the world must rapidly move away from planet-warming fossil fuels in order to prevent catastrophic climate impacts.
Thirty-three companies submitted a total…
