(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A federal judge recently stopped the Biden administration from scaling back oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
As reported by the American Tribune, the Department of the Interior [DOI] previously moved to reduce the area permitting offshore oil leases by roughly 6 million acres.
As a result, a preliminary injunction was issued by U.S. District Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana. Cain claimed that the DOI and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s initiative was procedurally invalid, adding that what the Biden administration did was a “weaponization” of policy.
“The process followed here looks more like a weaponization of the Endangered Species Act than the collaborative, reasoned approach prescribed by the applicable laws and regulations,” Cain said in the injunction.
He also added that “political considerations” are not an excuse to push the agenda instead of following the law.
“Even when an agency’s decision is based on political considerations, it is not excused from justifying the position—particularly when the decision is a pivot from a prior policy,” Cain said, adding that “failure to do so leads to ‘surprise switcheroo’ by an agency against regulated entities.”
Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, also criticized the Biden administration, saying that the order that was issued by the corrupt administration was an “unnecessary decision.” He claimed that the policy stance was restrictive toward his industry on principles that were rooted not in law or science but in leftist activism.
“The injunction is a necessary and welcome response from the court to an unnecessary decision by the Biden administration. The removal of millions of highly prospective acres and the imposition of excessive restrictions stemmed from a voluntary agreement with activist groups that circumvented the law, ignored science and bypassed public input,” he said.
