Environmental groups have been denied permission to intervene in a multi-state lawsuit aimed at overturning a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and coastal waters imposed by the Biden administration.
U.S. Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana denied petitions of nine environmental groups earlier this month to intervene in oil leasing litigation, which was spearheaded by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and officials in 12 other states.
“Despite conservation groups’ different objectives, this lawsuit is not about implementing an approach to oil and gas development on federal lands and waters that is sufficiently protective of the climate, environment or public health,” Doughty said in his denial of the groups’ request to intervene. “This case is also not about whether to permanently end new leasing of federal land and waters.”
Instead, the litigation will be more narrowly focused on whether Biden administration officials had the authority, through federal law or the Constitution, to pause new oil and gas leasing in offshore waters and on federal lands pending a wide-ranging review of current energy policy, the judge said.
Doughty also denied a motion to transfer the Louisiana case to Wyoming, saying it would be prejudicial to call on the plaintiff states to litigate their claims in two different courts. Many states have both offshore and land-based leases that are affected by the federal moratorium, he said.
Because such federal oil and gas leases generate millions of dollars in revenue to states that can be used for coastal protection projects, Landry’s lawsuit describes the effects of federal pause as historic.
“It constitutes what is likely the single-largest divestment of revenue for environmental protection projects in American history,” the original complaint states.
Tyler Gray, president and general counsel of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association (LMOGA), said the lawsuit was part of a larger mix of actions to get the federal government to take a more balanced view of oil and gas activities. Ultimately, though, the final answer might not result directly from a court action, he said.
“It’s probably more likely that it will be done more on the lawmakers’ side,” Gray told the Louisiana Record.