Federal judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana reversed the Biden Administration’s move to temporarily suspend oil and gas lease permits on federal lands and waters. The ban was said to stay in place until a review could be taken by the Department of the Interior.
As reported by NBC News:
The Interior Department said it would “comply with the decision,” signaling that lease sales to drill in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico will likely resume — at least for now.
During Biden’s first days in office, his Interior Department paused new leases while reviewing the program to decide whether extracting oil and gas from federal lands and waters should continue in the future, as the president seeks to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels. The Interior Department has held a public forum on the issue and said that an interim report on the future of the program would be coming over the summer.
The suit was brought by 13 attorneys general from around the nation, led by Jef Landry of Louisiana.
CFACT Collegians had participated in the Department of the Interior’s forum on this issue and even submitted a joint letter urging the Biden Administration to reverse its moratorium.
You can read the full story from NBC News here.