The last time I checked on the Biden administration’s war against the fossil fuel industry, a Louisiana federal judge blocked its ability to unilaterally “pause” oil and gas leasing in 13 states.
Despite the ruling, Biden’s Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been slow-walking the lease sales and using green justice tactics to halt other development.
BLM has conducted some state lease sales. The administration also has advanced more leasing but under more stringent guidelines. Among other things, Interior has scheduled two of three offshore auctions and is eyeing May to begin onshore lease sales in several states.Meanwhile, a federal plan to auction more than 725,000 acres in 11 Central California counties for drilling was blocked Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (No. 3:19-cv-07155-JSC).The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups had sued BLM to halt new fossil fuel development.District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley approved the agreement between BLM and the groups in which the environmental impacts are to be further analyzed. The drilling program had been approved by the Trump administration in 2019.
Tired of the tactics, a pair of energy industry groups have filed a lawsuit, alleging the Biden administration has failed to comply with federal mandates regarding how often auctions of land for oil and gas drilling are held.
The Western Energy Alliance and the Petroleum Association of Wyoming (PAW) argued in the lawsuit that the Department of the Interior (DOI) was in violation of the Mineral Leasing Act which requires quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales. The groups also criticized the administration for signaling in November that it won’t hold any onshore sales until mid-2023.”The Mineral Leasing Act is clear: the Interior Secretary must hold at least quarterly lease sales in every state where there is interest, as reflected by nominations,” Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement.”Oil and natural gas companies have nominated millions of acres in Wyoming and across the West that have yet to be offered for sale. Not only has this administration held only one set of lease sales in its first two years, but has now signaled that there will be no sales until second quarter 2023, a full year later,” she continued. “Once a year does not equal ‘quarterly.'”
Meanwhile, the slow-walking and game-playing by the Biden administration continues as the next date for any onshore lease sales is currently set for mid-2023.
Interior, as well as environmental groups opposed to new leasing, have argued in public and in court that the government has wide discretion over whether and when to lease federal acreage, as well as how much acreage to lease.The Biden administration has taken actions to advance new leasing while also adding new strictures.Interior has scheduled two of the three offshore oil and gas lease sales Congress ordered in the Democrats’ green energy and health spending bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. The department is eyeing May 2023 to carry out onshore lease sales in several states.The department has also begun implementing higher royalty and rental rates on leased acreage, which Congress also ordered in the new climate law, and directed state offices not to favor oil and gas leasing for the use of federal lands over other uses, such as recreation.
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