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Federal judge says Biden went too far with indefinite stoppage of offshore oil and gas leases

1 hour 22 minutes 49 seconds ago Tuesday, October 07 2025 Oct 7, 2025 October 07, 2025 6:16 PM October 07, 2025 in News
Source: WBRZ

LAKE CHARLES — A federal judge says President Joe Biden went too far when he declared parts of the Outer Continental Shelf off-limits to potential oil and gas leasing for an indefinite period.

One of his Jan. 6, 2025, orders concerned leasing off the coast of Alaska while a separate one covered areas off the East Coast, West Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. A number of states plus the American Petroleum Institute and the Gulf Energy Alliance sued in Lake Charles federal court on Jan. 17.

After President Donald Trump rescinded Biden's order after taking office (and renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America), several environmental groups filed their own challenge. For their part, industry representatives said they should have had an opportunity to weigh in before Biden issued his mandate. 

In a ruling last week, U.S. District Judge James David Cain Jr., a Trump appointee, said Biden's order went too far because it did not include an expiration date. 

He said that while most presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower had withdrawn leasing at various times under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act since 1953, it was used sparingly and for specific reasons: to protect coral reefs under Eisenhower and after an oil spill under President Richard Nixon, for example.

Cain said President Barack Obama and Biden each went too far by imposing indefinite restrictions over broad areas.

"They constituted a departure from the executive branch's longstanding practice and exceeded the authority" under the OCSLA, he said in his ruling Oct. 2.

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