(The Center Square) – Former U.S. President Joe Biden overstepped his authority when he ordered a withdrawal of sizable portions of federal waters from future oil and gas development, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled.
U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles ruled Friday in favor of oil and gas industry groups and attorneys general in five states that sued to block Biden’s action to prohibit the development of 625 million acres in federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of America, and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
Biden, in his final month in office, issued a memorandum that withdrew the areas from oil and gas leasing, citing his authority under the 72-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. President Donald Trump, on the first day of his second term, issued an executive order that repealed Biden’s memoranda.
Cain ruled that Biden’s withdrawal was illegal because it was intended to be permanent. The judge said President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of lands from oil and gas leasing was also illegal.
In his ruling, Cain wrote that while other presidents in the past have sought to protect offshore waters, only Biden and Barrack Obama sought to make the protections permanent. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the judge wrote, “establishes that withdrawals must be subject to reversal or modification.”
Cain wrote that Biden’s and Obama’s orders constituted “a departure from the executive branch’s longstanding practice and exceeded the authority granted.”
The restrictions did not affect the central and western Gulf of America, which account for the vast majority of domestic offshore oil and gas output. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) reported that federal offshore areas produced an average of 1.83 million barrels of oil per day in 2024, which was about 14% of total U.S. output.
The Energy Information Administration estimates Gulf of America natural gas production in 2024 at approximately 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), down from 2.0 Bcf/d in 2023.
Biden’s order was challenged by attorneys general in Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia and Mississippi along with the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Gulf Energy Alliance
“We welcome the court’s decision to vacate this politically motivated decision and ensure our nation’s vast offshore resources remain a critical source of affordable energy, government revenue and stability around the world,” said Ryan Meyers, senior vice president and general counsel at the American Petroleum Institute. “This ruling marks another important step in advancing a robust new five-year offshore leasing program and ensuring the U.S. can meet rising energy demand,” Meyers said.
Biden’s order had prohibited oil and gas leases along the Atlantic coast from Canada to the southern tip of Florida, in the Pacific Ocean off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, the eastern Gulf of America, and in portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.
The U.S. Department of Interior in August announced a plan to hold 30 auctions for oil drilling rights in federal water over the next 15 years. This replaces a five-year strategy developed during the Biden administration that sought to reduce fossil fuel production in federal waters and public lands by holding only three offshore oil lease sales over the next five years.
Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, said banning offshore leasing hurts America’s global competitiveness.
“We are competing in a global market for capital, and when we make it hard for companies to do business in the United States, they are going to invest their money in drilling and production programs in other parts of the world,” said Chiasson. “With the amount of energy needed for AI, we as a country don’t have enough energy sources and we need an ‘all of the above’ approach,” he said.
