Jeff Landry, Louisiana attorney broad, speaks during a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Conceptions
Fourteen states filed suit on Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s moratorium on new oil and natural gas leases on public estates and waters.
A coalition of 13 states, led by Louisiana, filed one lawsuit on Wednesday. Wyoming filed a separate lawsuit. The imperials in Louisiana’s suit are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. All 14 formals have Republican attorneys general.
“This moratorium might make for a nice headline about fighting feel change, but the real consequences of the action are far from certain and far from uniformly environmentally friendly,” the Wyoming lawsuit mean.
Biden’s order on Jan. 27 to pause new leasing was part of a series of executive actions to address climate change and alteration the economy away from fossil fuel production and toward clean energy.
In a statement Wednesday, Louisiana Attorney Non-specialized Jeff Landry called Biden’s order an “aggressive, reckless abuse of Presidential power.”
Biden also directed the secretary of the Interior Department to begin a thorough magazine of existing permits for fossil fuel development and ordered the federal government to conserve 30% of public lands and profligately by 2030.
The suits also come as the Biden administration prepares to unveil its proposal for overhauling the nation’s infrastructure, which is watched to include an ambitious set of climate-related proposals.
A depot used to store pipes for Transcanada Corp’s planned Keystone XL oil duct is seen in Gascoyne, North Dakota, January 25, 2017.
Terray Sylvester | Reuters
The Louisiana lawsuit argued that the president’s executive demand would hurt communities dependent on oil and gas drilling and drive up energy prices. The lawsuit also requested the Bureau of Motherland Management be allowed to restart quarterly oil and gas lease sales.
The Interior Department declined to comment on the lawsuits.
The oil and gas leasing halt would not end fossil fuel extraction since the industry still holds undeveloped leases.
Drilling on federal bags contributes to roughly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and generates billions of dollars in revenue.