Environmental Groups File Lawsuit to Nullify First US Biden Administration Oil and Gas Development Lease Sale on Federal Land

[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] As the first federal land lease auction for oil and gas development under the U.S. Joe Biden administration began on the 29th (local time), major foreign media reported that two lawsuits have been filed by environmental groups seeking to invalidate it.

The U.S. federal land lease auction for oil and gas development has been a subject of continuous controversy since the Biden administration took office in January last year.

President Biden signed an executive order to halt federal land lease auctions for oil and gas development just one week after his inauguration on January 27 last year, aiming to protect the environment and combat climate change.

Immediately, the drilling industry and states heavily reliant on energy imports opposed the move.

In March last year, 13 states including Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the government’s action in the Louisiana federal court, and Wyoming also filed a separate lawsuit with the Wyoming federal court on the same grounds. The Wyoming federal court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in June last year.

After losing the lawsuit and with energy prices soaring due to the Ukraine war, the Biden administration reversed its stance in April this year and announced the resumption of federal land lease auctions.

In response, environmental groups filed lawsuits this time. Environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in the Washington D.C. federal court seeking to invalidate the auction results. They argued that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not properly analyze the impact of the federal land sale on climate change. Other environmental groups, Friends of the Earth and the Wilderness Society, filed separate lawsuits related to the Wyoming federal land lease auction.

The Biden administration’s first federal land lease auction, held from the 29th to the 30th, targets federal lands in eight states, with Wyoming’s federal lands accounting for over 90%. The remaining lands in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah are also being auctioned off in smaller portions.

It was confirmed that there was not much participation from drilling companies on the first day of the auction. In the Wyoming federal land lease auction covering 120,000 acres, more than one-third of the 105 parcels received no bids and closed on the first day.

Although the Biden administration resumed the auction, the industry has expressed dissatisfaction as the land use fees were raised and the scale of federal lands subject to auction was reduced.

Western Energy Alliance, an energy industry-related group, explained, "Drilling companies may have concluded that development was not worthwhile after considering costs, risks, and production periods."

The Department of the Interior stated, "This federal land lease auction was conducted following the federal court ruling in June last year," adding, "Unlike previous administrations, we raised fees and significantly reduced the scale of lands subject to auction." They emphasized efforts to reduce environmental impact.

Regarding the environmental groups’ lawsuits, the Western Energy Alliance stated that the lawsuits lack grounds because federal law explicitly lists oil and natural gas as one of the basic uses of public lands.