Federal Court Hands Biden a Surprise Loss – Then the Judge Hands Joe a Humiliating Lecture
Joe Biden has openly voiced his goals of eliminating fossil fuels and his administrative actions to date have left the U.S. energy world reeling. He continued his assault on America’s energy independence in recent actions by weaponizing wildlife protection laws.
Biden’s e Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) imposed last-minute restrictions on an upcoming offshore oil and gas lease sale that spans millions of acres across the Gulf of Mexico. The lease was set to open next week before Biden’s BOEM shut it down.
The action didn’t sit well with a federal judge who struck down the administrative action. Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction. He ruled that the federal government must proceed with the lease sale by Sept. 30 under its original conditions.
From Fox News:
Cain said the administration’s process looked “more like a weaponization of the Endangered Species Act than the collaborative, reasoned approach prescribed by the applicable laws and regulations.”
One question a readers may ask is: What is the BOEM and how does it have so much power over oil and gas leases? The judge may have had the same question, particularly with this wildlife law. He didn’t hold back against Biden’s BOEM.
Cain also said the Biden administration’s actions appeared to be an attempt to “provide scientific justification to a political reassessment of offshore drilling.”
Plaintiffs in the case are the State of Louisiana, industry association American Petroleum Institute (API) and oil companies Chevron and Shell. The lease in question is Lease Sale 261. They sued after BOEM bowed to liberal environmental groups in a separate lawsuit who wanted the lease sale stopped.
Shutting down millions of acres of lease options in federal waters wasn’t the only restrictive measure in this Biden move. BOEM, responding to environmental group demands, also imposed restrictions on vessel traffic associated with the lease.
BOEM was demanding that specially trained visual observers must be aboard all vessels traversing the area, all ships regardless of size must travel no quicker than 10 knots and vessels should only travel through the area in the daytime. Companies working the lease would face higher costs and limited access to the lease.
Biden’s administration has been criticized for twisting laws to fit political promises with these overreaching orders from on high. The one thing keeping Biden’s overreach in check is the occasional judge who holds his feet to the fire.
Source: Fox News