Federal judge blocks Biden's ban on leases for drilling on public lands WASHINGTON — In a setback for President Joe Biden’s efforts on climate change, a federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday blocked the administration’s temporary ban on new leases to drill for oil and gas on public lands and ordered that lease sales continue.
The Interior Department said it would “comply with the decision,” signaling that lease sales to drill in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico will likely resume — at least for now.
During Biden’s first says in office, his Interior Department paused new leases while reviewing the program to decide whether extracting oil and gas from federal lands and waters should continue in the future, as the president seeks to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels. The Interior Department has held a public forum on the issue and said that an interim report on the future of the program would be coming over the summer.
But Louisiana state Attorney General Jeff Landry and 12 other GOP attorneys general sued in March to block the temporary ban, arguing the administration had circumvented legal requirements for carrying out such a move. On Tuesday, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from enforcing its moratorium.
Doughty said his order applies “nationwide.”
“Millions and possibly billions of dollars are at stake,” Doughty wrote in a 44-page memorandum accompanying the injunction. “Local government funding, jobs for Plaintiff State workers, and funds for the restoration of Louisiana’s Coastline are at stake. Plaintiff States have a reliance interest in the proceeds derived from offshore and on land oil and gas lease sales.”.....
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