A lawsuit filed by Oklahoma, Louisiana and 11 other states against President Biden’s pause on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters prompted a Louisiana federal Judge on Tuesday to freeze the President’s actions.
The judge also ordered the government to resume the auctions of the leases.
Oklahoma Solicitor General Mithun Mansinghani, who represents Oklahoma in the litigation, applauded the judge’s action.
“This ruling is a victory for the rule of law, for Oklahoma, and for the energy industry,” Mansinghani said. “This year, the Oklahoma legislature directed our office to monitor and challenge unlawful federal actions, including executive orders like this one. Oklahoma can ill afford to have a president attack its main industry by executive fiat. Oklahoma energy companies operate on federal lands throughout the country. This executive order is not only unlawful, but also threatens state revenue, may further raise energy and gas prices, and harms the hard-working men and women whose livelihoods depend on these quality jobs.”
The judge also agreed with Oklahoma and 12 other states’ position that the president’s executive action on this matter needs congressional approval.
“The agencies could cancel or suspend a lease sale due to problems with that specific lease,” the judge wrote, “but not as to eligible lands for no reason other than to do a comprehensive review pursuant to Executive Order 14008. 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.”
The order granted a preliminary injunction to Oklahoma and the other states that had sued Biden and his Department of Interior after they ordered the leasing pause. The pause came when Biden signed an executive order in January and put a hold on new oil and gas leasing auctions pending a government review of the program.
The order resulted in a sharp drop in shares of companies like Oklahoma’s Devon Energy because it has a heavy federal lease exposure. Considered a top oil producer on onshore federal land in the Lower 48 states, Devon indicated at the time that its total of existing federal lands permits would last at least four years.
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