It comes from Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group, and challenged Mr Biden’s campaign’s climate pledge to push for “no more drilling on federal lands". Just a few days after the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the Biden administration had auctioned off the right to drill offshore on 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.

       This move alone could be responsible for locking in more fossil fuel drilling – and carbon emissions – for decades.

       For this report, the group analysed data from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which processes applications for drilling permits on public lands.

       This report found that the BLM has approved an average of about 336 drilling permits per month in 2021 through November 30.

       They also found that the agency had approved 333 drilling permits per month in 2021, excluding January, when Donald Trump was in office for most of it.

       That average figure was up by more than 35 percent from when Mr Trump took office in 2017, but still down by more than 25 percent from 2020.

       In 2020, oil companies stockpiled permits in the final months of the Trump presidency in order to get them approved before the new government.

       Despite this major reversal on his campaign promise, President Biden has made several positive advancements in terms of climate policy.

       Some of these actions include rejoining the Paris agreement on climate change, advancing major clean energy legislation in the US Congress, and proposing tougher fuel economy standards and rules to curb methane emissions.

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       The report stated: “Yet the administration also has taken steps in the wrong direction, backing a massive pipeline that brings dirty oil through Indigenous land and calling for more international oil production.”

       Speaking to Climate 202, Jamie Henn, an organizer with the Build Back Fossil Free coalition said: "The president has basically only tried to tackle one side of the climate problem,"

       "He's talked a lot about building clean energy, but he hasn't done anything to stop fossil fuels.

       “And you need to tackle both sides if we're going to address this crisis."

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       One explanation for this U-turn by President Biden is the endless legal challenges he has faced from Republican state governments and court orders in conservative-leaning states.

       During his first week in office, Biden issued an executive order to pause all new lease sales on public lands and waters while it reviewed how to adjust the program.

       However, he was sued by Western oil drillers and 14 Republican-led states.

       Finally, in June, a federal judge in Louisiana that was appointed by President Trump issued a preliminary injunction to block the leasing pause.