Louisiana and four other states have filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration over the offshore oil and gas leasing ban announced in its waning days, arguing that only Congress has the power to “regulate property.”
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in the Western District of Louisiana by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, challenged the withdrawal of more than a half a billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf waters along the West and East coasts, Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The former president’s authority to take these steps is based on a single sentence in a 1953 law, which allows the chief executive, “from time to time,” to withdraw from leasing any of the unleashed coastal regions, according to the lawsuit.
Biden’s actions violate the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which set up a framework for the orderly energy development of these coastal regions, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.
“Two weeks before Inauguration Day, Biden purported to ban virtually all oil and gas leasing along the lower 48 states’ coastline and a significant portion along Alaska’s coastline,” Murrill said in a statement provided to the Louisiana Record. “The ban is blatantly illegal! If upheld, it would dramatically harm our economy and livelihood. I will always defend Louisiana and American energy.”
The ban applies to potential future offshore and gas lease sales and not leases already purchased by oil companies.
The other four states that signed onto the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi and Georgia. Another plaintiff in the lawsuit is the American Petroleum Institute (API).
“The purported withdrawal of more than half a billion acres from oil and gas leasing is major by any measure,” the lawsuit states. “That doing so functionally overrides OCSLA’s detailed leasing scheme, moreover, reinforces that there is no sufficiently clear congressional statement giving President Biden the sweeping authority that no other president has claimed to have.”
The complaint also noted that three years ago, the Western District of Louisiana court barred the Biden administration from attempting to “pause” oil and gas leases on offshore waters. The administration had expressed concerns about the impacts of global warming and effects on marine mammals.
API called the administration’s actions politically motivated, adding that the litigation was needed to ensure the nation’s offshore resources would remain a source of low-carbon energy for the U.S. and other nations.
“As we move forward with a legal challenge, we continue to urge Congress and the incoming administration to use every tool at their disposal to restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing,” API’s senior vice president and general counsel, Ryan Meyers, said in a prepared statement.
The API called on Congress to make reversing the decision a top priority.
“API has also urged the incoming administration to draft a new five-year offshore leasing program, changing course from the weakest offshore program in history under the Biden administration,” the institute said in a statement.
The lawsuit asks the federal court to enjoin the defendants from enforcing the president’s withdrawal memos and for other relief, including attorney fees and costs.