Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

On June 28, 2023, Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), WildEarth Guardians, and Friends of the Earth withdrew their lawsuit seeking to compel the U.S. Department of the Interior to respond to a January 2022 petition requesting a rulemaking to reduce the rate of oil and gas production on federal public lands to near zero by 2035. The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Mineral Management notified CBD on June 27 that she had decided not to initiate the rulemaking because the Department “has a robust rulemaking agenda already underway to address the climate crisis and implement reforms to our conventional energy programs, and has insufficient resources to undertake the proposed rulemaking at this time.” In a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/biden-administration-rejects-calls-to-phase-out-oil-gas-on-public-lands-by-2035-2023-06-29/">press release</a>, the plaintiff groups said they were “now evaluating the legal adequacy of the substance of the response” to their petition.