President Joe Biden’s ban on offshore drilling in certain parts of the ocean and the Gulf of America was illegal, a federal judge ruled on Oct. 2.
U.S. District Judge James Cain of Louisiana ruled that both Biden and President Barack Obama went beyond their authority when they banned offshore drilling in parts of the Outer Continental Shelf because the bans were imposed without an expiration date.
Their orders “purported to apply for ‘a period of time without specific expiration,’ i.e., indefinitely,” Cain wrote in a 16-page decision. That “constituted a departure from the executive branch’s longstanding practice” and exceeded the authority outlined in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, he added. Biden, on Jan. 6, shortly before his term ended, barred oil and gas leasing across 625 million acres of ocean, including the entire East and West coasts.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement at the time. “It is not worth the risks.”
On Jan. 17, several groups and five states sued the government over the action.
They said Biden went beyond the federal law, which states in part that the president “may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.”
Government lawyers opposed the litigants, pointing to how President Donald Trump reversed the ban upon returning to office.
They said that the government enjoys sovereign immunity against the type of claims brought by the states and groups, and even if the court found it does not, then it should still rule in favor of the government because Biden’s withdrawals “were not permanent and were, in fact, lawfully revoked by President Trump.”
“The Court should not reach the constitutional issues, but if it does, it should find that the President’s temporary withdrawals were constitutional,” lawyers wrote in a brief.
Cain, the judge, said that sovereign immunity does not apply because the suit deals with whether the president went beyond his authority. He said that presidents in the past utilized the power granted by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, but primarily did so with expiration dates. In contrast, Biden and Obama said their withdrawals did not have expiration dates, or were to be in place indefinitely.
Cain declared the orders from Biden and Obama unlawful, while denying the rest of the counts in the complaint.
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