US judge blocks Biden pause on oil, gas leasing

A federal judge has blocked President Joe Biden's pause on oil and gas leasing, in a potential blow to the administration's efforts to conduct an exhaustive review before selling more drilling rights on federal land and offshore waters.

US district court judge Terry Doughty today signed a preliminary injunction that aims to prohibit the US Interior Department from implementing the oil and gas leasing pause, which Biden requested through an executive order signed on 27 January. Doughty agreed with a group of Republican-led states that brought a lawsuit arguing the administration went too far with its unilateral pause on leasing.

"The agencies could cancel or suspend a lease sale due to problems with that specific lease, but not as to eligible lands for no reason other than to do a comprehensive review," Doughty wrote in a 44-page opinion. "Although there is certainly nothing wrong with performing a comprehensive review, there is a problem in ignoring acts of Congress while the review is being completed."

It remains unclear how soon the injunction could lead to oil and gas lease sales restarting. The Biden administration would need to take multiple steps to schedule and hold lease sales, review bids and then award leases. The Interior Department said it was reviewing the decision and would continue to work on an interim report on conventional energy leasing that will outline next steps and provide recommendations to the US Congress.

"We are reviewing the judge's opinion and will comply with the decision," Interior said.

Louisiana, Alaska, Texas, Utah and Oklahoma were among the states that filed the lawsuit and asked for a preliminary injunction, which takes effect immediately and remains in place while litigation proceeds.

Doughty, who was appointed in 2018 by former president Donald Trump, said those states were likely to prevail in their arguments that the Biden administration did not have authority to pause lease sales, likely violated procedural requirements when it paused leasing without accepting public comment, and unreasonably delayed scheduled lease sales.

By Chris Knight