Former President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour decision to withdraw millions of acres of offshore waters from oil and gas drilling was illegal, a federal court ruled last week.
Judge James Cain of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana found that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act did not give the president the power to indefinitely bar offshore development in federal waters.
The decision comes months after President Donald Trump rescinded Biden’s directives. The Trump administration has taken steps to expand offshore oil and gas development, including increasing the number of lease sales it plans to offer over the coming years.
Cain zeroed in on part of the Biden memorandums that stated the halt on leasing would last for “a time period without specific expiration.”
