Eleanor Hildebrandt | June 18, 2021

A federal judge ruled that the Biden administration must restart regular sales of oil and gas leases.

The order forces the administration to abandon a central piece of its environmental agenda. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in January that temporarily paused new oil and gas leases on public lands to give time to the administration to review leasing policies. The reviews intended to better understand the leases’ contributions to climate change. The executive order was a return to Obama-era policies.

In the ruling issued by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, he granted a request by Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s attorney general, and a dozen other Republican-led states and ordered the administration to hold quarterly lease sales nationally. The complaint filed by Landry and other states was introduced at the end of March. Doughty’s order will hold until there is an official decision made in the case.

The initial ruling said the “court does not favor nationwide injunctions unless absolutely necessary,” suggesting the injunction was not needed. Another concern is the monetary losses from not leasing this land.

While the decision garnered support from some republicans nationally, environmentalists are calling for the executive order’s pause to be permanent, according to Iowa Capital Dispatch. A long-term ban would assist the Biden administration in meeting its goal of conserving a third of U.S. land and waters by 2030.