The Biden administration has been smacked with a lawsuit claiming that it overreached when it announced a moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal land, according to The Western Journal.
Biden kills one million jobs with stroke of a pen
President Joe Biden signed an executive order declaring that “the Secretary of the Interior shall pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of Federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices in light of the Secretary of the Interior’s broad stewardship responsibilities over the public lands and in offshore waters, including potential climate and other impacts associated with oil and gas activities on public lands or in offshore waters.”
Western Energy Alliance said that the open-ended language means that the pause is the equivalent of a ban on new leases. The alliance represents 200 energy-sector companies.
“The type of programmatic environmental analysis regarding climate change that has been announced will take years to complete, likely lasting most if not all of the president’s first term,” it said in a news release.
A Pipeline worker who just lost his job today…after Biden promised he wouldn't ban fracking. He also claims "they" "took the election." pic.twitter.com/HA4bFBCaQr
— Cardinal Conservative (@CardinalConserv) January 27, 2021
Keystone Pipeline terminated by executive order
“On January 27, 2021, the Secretary of the Interior, acting at the President’s direction, suspended indefinitely the federal oil and gas leasing program. The suspension is an unsupported and unnecessary action that is inconsistent with the Secretary’s statutory obligations. Because the suspension is both arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law, the Court should find the suspension invalid and set aside the challenged government action,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, said.
Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the alliance, said Biden is going beyond his authority.
“The law is clear. Presidents don’t have authority to ban leasing on public lands. All Americans own the oil and natural gas beneath public lands, and Congress has directed them to be responsibly developed on their behalf. Drying up new leasing puts future development as well as existing projects at risk. President Biden cannot simply ignore laws in effect for over half a century,” she said.
“Biden’s ban is an overreach meant to satisfy the environmental left, but it would seriously harm the livelihoods of tens of thousands of westerners and put at risk millions more as state services become unfunded.”