U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty ruled late Thursday that the federal government may not stop issuing leases on federal lands and waters in accordance with the pause Biden ordered.
Doughty’s order said federal law requires the Interior Department to carry out lease sales, citing the Mineral Leasing Act, which requires the department to hold sales “where eligible lands are available” and to do so “at least quarterly.”
Doughty had already put a preliminary injunction on the leasing pause in June 2021. The Biden administration has since carried out one offshore lease sale and one series of onshore lease sales across various states pursuant to the preliminary injunction.
However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday vacated Doughty’s preliminary injunction. The ruling did not deal with the merits of the case but remanded the decision to Doughty’s court, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, for further proceedings on the grounds that he did not define the word “pause” when enjoining the government from pausing leasing.
The new injunction uses different language, enjoining the government from “implementing a stop” on new leasing.
Unlike the preliminary injunction, which was effective in all states, the permanent injunction covers only the 13 states that filed the initial suit against Biden’s leasing pause. Those states are Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Biden ordered a pause on new leasing in an executive order on Jan. 27, 2021. The order was to remain “pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices.”
That review was released in November, months after Doughty handed down the preliminary injunction, and called for a revamp of onshore and offshore leasing, including the imposition of higher rents on leases parcels and higher royalties on production.
Republican-led states had led the charge against Biden’s leasing pause, arguing it exceeded his authority as president. The Biden administration appealed Doughty’s preliminary injunction to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which paved the way for Wednesday’s order of vacatur, and argued that the government has wide discretion as to how and when to hold lease sales.
Political | Process 
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