Republican-led States File Lawsuit Against Biden’s Offshore Drilling Ban

Several Republican-led states have taken legal action to challenge the recent offshore drilling ban imposed by outgoing US President Joe Biden. The lawsuit argues that Biden overstepped his authority by unilaterally implementing the ban, contending that such a decision should have been made by the US Congress. The plaintiffs are seeking a reversal of Biden’s executive order through declaratory and injunctive relief.

In a series of executive orders, Biden effectively halted all future oil and gas drilling in over 2.5 million square kilometers of federal waters earlier this month. This ban encompasses vast areas of the Atlantic, Pacific, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Northern Bering Sea, effectively closing off approximately a quarter of the total land mass of the United States from federal oil and gas leasing.

The legal challenge, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, names Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as defendants. The plaintiffs include the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, and Mississippi, along with industry groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and the Gulf Energy Alliance.

Biden invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to implement the drilling ban, granting the sitting president the authority to withdraw federal waters from future leasing. Reversing such a ban would require legislative action by Congress, meaning that Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as the 47th president today, cannot unilaterally undo the ban.

Trump has expressed his intention to immediately challenge the ban and pursue legal avenues to overturn it. The lawsuit underscores the contentious nature of environmental and energy policies in the United States, with the offshore drilling ban representing a significant flashpoint between the outgoing and incoming administrations.