Judge reissues injunction against Biden administration moratorium on new oil and gas leasing

Last week, a judge from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an injunction granted by a lower court against President Biden’s moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters lacked specificity. As a result, the leasing moratorium was back in effect – but only for a day.

Judge Terry Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana – the judge who delivered the original injunction in June 2021 – issued a permanent injunction against the moratorium in the 13 Republican-led states that sued the administration over the leasing ban. The original injunction said that leasing could go ahead on all federal lands.

Judge Doughty ruled that the leasing moratorium was “beyond the authority of the President of the United States.” He said Biden’s order violated both the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA) and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA).

“Both statutes require Government Defendants’ agencies to sell oil and gas leases,” he wrote. “The OCSLA has a Five-Year Plan in effect that requires eligible leases to be sold. Government Defendants’ agencies have no authority to make significant revisions in the OCSLA Five-Year Plan without going through the procedure mandated by Congress.

“The MLA requires the DOI [Department of the Interior] to hold lease sales, where eligible lands are available at lease quarterly. By stopping the process, the agencies are in effect amending two Congressional statutes. Neither the OCSLA nor the MLA gives the Government Defendants’ agencies the authority to implement a Stop of lease sales.”

Given that the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law on August 16 mandates oil and gas leasing on millions of acres of federal land and water for the next decade, the Biden administration is unlikely to appeal Doughty’s decision.