Western Energy Alliance v. Haaland

The court found that the lack of lease sales in 2021 was not arbitrary or capricious, as the agency was conducting a review of lease practices following Executive Order 14008, which stated that the Secretary of the Interior shall pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and offshore waters, and addressing legal deficiencies in environmental analyses identified in prior litigation. However, the court found that the DOI failed to provide a sufficient explanation for the failure to hold lease sales in the latter half of 2022. The court found that the record provided no explanation for the decision to forgo lease sales, and thus the failure to hold a lease sale in late 2022 was arbitrary and capricious. The court further held that the industry petitioners lacked standing because the petitioners did not allege that their members would have bid or participated in any 2022 lease sales, and thus did not meet the requirement of an "actual or imminent" injury in fact.

Two oil and gas trade groups filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Wyoming to direct federal defendants to adopt an oil and gas lease sale schedule in compliance with the Mineral Leasing Act’s requirement that sales be held “for each State where eligible lands are available at least quarterly.” The petition for review alleged that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had not conducted an onshore oil and gas lease sale since June 2022 and that no lease sales were planned for the first quarter of 2023. The petition asserted that the failure to conduct lease sales during the third quarter of 2022 violated the Mineral Leasing Act’s express terms and that the failure to explain why no sales were conducted was arbitrary and capricious. The petitioners alleged that BLM’s scheduling and administering of the leasing program was inconsistent with and exceeded its statutory obligations and did not comply with required procedures.