Overview

• U.S. District Judge James Cain in Louisiana ruled that orders by Presidents Biden and Obama to indefinitely block new offshore leasing exceeded executive authority.
• Cain wrote that the directives departed from longstanding executive practice and went beyond what federal law allows.
• Biden’s move had barred new leasing across roughly 625 million acres, including the entire East Coast, waters off California, Oregon and Washington, parts of Alaska’s coast, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
• The Trump administration has moved to lift the Biden-era withdrawal, so the decision may not immediately change access to the affected waters.
• Industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, praised the ruling, while most current offshore production in the central and western Gulf of Mexico was not covered by Biden’s restrictions.