On September 22, 2021, the federal district court for the Western District of Louisiana denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss claims by Louisiana and 12 other states challenging the administration’s “pause” on new offshore and onshore oil and gas leasing. The court agreed with the entirety of a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation issued on August 23 that recommended denial of the motion. First, the magistrate found that the plaintiffs sufficiently alleged facts demonstrating that President Biden’s Executive Order 14008—which ordered the pause—exceeded the President’s statutory or constitutional authority and that the states therefore stated a claim against the President for ultra vires review. The magistrate said the executive order “unambiguously commands the Secretary [of the Interior] to act with the language ‘shall pause’” and that the “boilerplate language” requiring the Secretary’s actions to be “consistent with applicable law” was a “‘purely theoretical’ savings clause as it offers no mechanism for the [Department of the Interior] to implement the order in a manner consistent with law other than simply refusing to implement the order outright.” Second, the magistrate found that the states’ allegations of economic harm established their entitlement to an exception to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act’s (OCSLA’s) 60-day notice requirement. The magistrate further found that the states’ claims that the defendants violated the OCSLA and the Mineral Leasing Act were reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The magistrate was not persuaded by the defendants’ arguments that the claims were improper programmatic challenges and that agency actions were not final. The magistrate also found that the states’ factual allegations were sufficient to state claims under the APA.

Lawsuit challenging pause on new oil and gas leasing on public lands and in offshore waters.

Louisiana v. Biden

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Louisiana Federal Court Allowed States to Proceed with Challenge to “Pause” on Onshore and Offshore Leasing

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