A federal judge’s recent decision to overturn a section of a presidential executive order that called for monetizing social carbon costs in federal actions will lead to delays in future oil and gas drilling, according to a court filing on Saturday.
Biden administration attorneys responded to the Feb. 11 opinion of Judge James Cain Jr. of the Western District of Louisiana. The opinion was the result of a lawsuit by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and officials in nine other states challenging President Biden’s executive order as federal government overreach.
Cain’s opinion granted the plaintiff states a preliminary injunction against the administration’s plans to recalculate the social costs of sending more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to better deal with global warming. But the administration’s response filed Saturday said the court ruling would upend numerous federal actions because it enjoins federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), from adopting environmental estimates calculated by an interagency working group.
“BLM had already incorporated the working group’s interim estimates into its (National Environmental Policy Act) analysis associated with several planned onshore oil and gas lease sales,” the administration’s motion to stay the injunction states. “... BLM had prepared the work necessary for those anticipated sales, but the preliminary injunction foreclosed its ability to proceed.”
In response, Landry said he would continue to fight what he sees as federal policies that can harm the energy industry and serve as job killers.
“It is fascinating the Biden administration now claims it’s delaying 40 rules,” Landry said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record. “In court, their lawyers said these numbers were not being used at all, so notice and comment were not required. The federal government’s appeal affirms what we knew all along: This is its way of remaking the American economy, in secret.”
The social cost of carbon calculations were to bear on numerous government decisions, such as air pollution regulations and offshore leases related to oil extraction, according to Biden’s attorneys.
“This is another play in the Biden playbook to attack the oil and gas industry, cripple our economy and further our dependence on foreign energy,” Landry said.