Was 2020 the year big oil gave up on its sweet, liquid, climate-destroying gold?

Was 2020 the year big oil gave up on its sweet, liquid, climate-destroying gold?

President Donald Trump's legacy will forever be defined by the massive failures he presided over in the final weeks of his presidency. And I'm not just talking about the violent insurrection at the Capitol, or the record-breaking pandemic daily death count of more than 4,000 lives.It's one of the most significant failures of his administration's entire anti-climate agenda — and the first significant win of 2021 for the global climate movement.I'm also talking about Trump's failure to sell off one of America's last untouched swaths of wilderness to fossil fuel companies. It's one of the most significant failures of his administration's entire anti-climate agenda — and the first significant win of 2021 for the global climate movement.It was an easy story to miss in last week's chaos. On Jan. 6, after four years of fighting tooth and nail to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, the Trump administration held its first lease sale. This was a moment many Republicans had been waiting for for decades, where big moneyed oil companies could start bidding for the rights to that sweet, liquid, climate-destroying gold.But after all that waiting, only two very small oil companies showed up. Industry expert Larry