A federal judge placed a permanent injunction against President Joe Biden‘s pause on federal oil and gas leasing in 13 states, following up on a temporary injunction placed on the Biden order last summer.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump nominee, ruled late Thursday that the federal government may not stop issuing leases on federal lands and waters in accordance with the pause Biden ordered during his first week in office. Doughty’s order said federal law requires the Interior Department to carry out lease sales, citing the Mineral Leasing Act, which requires the department to hold sales “where eligible lands are available” and to do so “at least quarterly.”
Doughty had already put a preliminary injunction on the leasing pause in June 2021. The Biden administration has since carried out one offshore lease sale and one series of onshore lease sales across various states pursuant to the preliminary injunction.
However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday vacated Doughty’s preliminary injunction. The ruling did not deal with the merits of the case but remanded the decision to Doughty’s court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, for further proceedings on the grounds that he did not define the word “pause” when enjoining the government from pausing leasing.
The new injunction uses different language, enjoining the government from “implementing a stop” on new leasing.
Unlike the preliminary injunction, which was effective in all states, the permanent injunction covers only the 13 states that filed the initial suit against Biden’s leasing pause. Those states are Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Biden ordered a pause on new leasing in an executive order on Jan. 27, 2021. The order was to remain “pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices.”
That review was released in November, months after Doughty handed down the preliminary injunction, and called for a revamp of onshore and offshore leasing, including the imposition of higher rents on leases parcels and higher royalties on production.
Republican-led states had led the charge against Biden’s leasing pause, arguing it exceeded his authority as president. The Biden administration appealed Doughty’s preliminary injunction to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which paved the way for Wednesday’s order of vacatur, and argued that the government has wide discretion as to how and when to hold lease sales.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen called the new injunction a victory “in the fight against the Biden administration’s lawless actions that are harming domestic energy development and increasing prices.”
Biden pledged to end oil and gas leasing on federal lands during his campaign for president, a promise he has been unable to keep, angering his environmentalist base.
The injunction coincides with new and specific directions from Congress, passed in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, for the Interior Department to carry out lease sales with regularity. The measures are a concession Biden and liberal Democrats made in order to win other priorities, especially funding for green energy and measures to mitigate climate change.
