In an effort to rollback Biden’s executive order banning new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, a coalition of 13 states filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on Wednesday.
The states involved in the lawsuit include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. Wyoming also filed a similar suit in a federal court located in that state.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the lawsuit alongside state lawmakers and energy officials.
As reported in the Daily Caller, Landry quipped:
“By executive fiat, Joe Biden and his administration have single-handedly driven the price of energy up — costing the American people where it hurts most, in their pocketbooks,” Landry said during a press conference Wednesday. “Biden’s Executive Orders abandon middle-class jobs at a time when America needs them most and put our energy security in the hands of foreign countries, many of whom despise America’s greatness.”
The President signed the executive order that is now in question back in January. The order placed on hold any new leasing on federal lands pending a government review. The U.S. Interior Department is set to launch that review on Thursday. Many analysts see the Administration’s review, however, as merely a necessary step they must perform in order to achieve the President’s campaign promise of halting all new leases. Environmentalist allies of the President have long sought to stymie U.S. oil and gas production in their efforts to tackle alleged manmade climate change.
To read the full story in the Daily Caller, click here.