On Friday, January 17, Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined the Attorneys General of Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, and Georgia in a lawsuit to stop President Joe Biden’s illegal ban on new offshore drilling.
On January 6, only two weeks before the end of the Biden-Harris Administration, President Biden issued two memoranda purporting to permanently “withdraw from disposition by oil or natural gas leasing” more than half a billion acres of offshore waters from Alaska to the Gulf Coast that fall under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). His memoranda stand contrary to the purpose of the OCSLA, which is to facilitate the development of the Shelf, and contrary to a federal court decision three years ago that barred much of the same action when the President sought to pause – not withdraw forever – this development.
“Banning oil and gas production takes direct aim at everyday Americans,
skyrocketing energy bills when their budgets are already tight,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “It threatens good-paying jobs and stifles economic growth. Perhaps worse, it puts American energy security at risk at a time when the world is on fire. I am proud to stand with my colleagues to oppose this last-minute maneuver by the Biden Administration that threatens energy security, jobs, and the economy.”
The complaint states that President Biden had no authority to issue the memoranda: “As interpreted by President Biden in the Withdrawal Memos, [the law] gives the President carte blanche to remove OCSLA-covered property from disposition—at any time, and for any reason or for no reason at all. This is precisely the sort of unbounded delegation of authority that has led the Supreme Court to find non-delegation violations on the ground that ‘Congress had failed to articulate any policy or standard to confine discretion.’”
In their brief, the Attorneys General also recognize the broad impact of the oil and gas leasing that the OCSLA was meant to promote and the President here seeks to cease, noting, “leasing activities comprise an extraordinary portion of our oil and gas industry. And in turn, they create American jobs, power American life, and generate over $7 billion in revenue per year—revenue that is shared among the federal government and coastal States, as well as distributed into preservation and conservation funds designed to protect America’s historical places and recreation opportunities.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court Western District of
Louisiana Lake Charles Division.
You can read the complaint HERE.
