Attorney
General Jeff Landry Sued President Biden for Halting All Lease Sales on Public
Land
BATON
ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s lawsuit against President
Joe Biden and numerous federal government officials will have a court hearing
on Thursday morning at the John M. Shaw United States Courthouse in Lafayette.
Oral arguments on the motion for a preliminary injunction will be heard by
Judge Terry Doughty beginning at 9:00 AM.
Louisiana
Solicitor General Liz Baker Murrill, who was born in Lafayette and graduated from
Lafayette High School, is leading a legal team on behalf of Louisiana and 12 other
states who sued Biden for acting beyond the scope of his authority by directing
federal government agencies to stop all lease sales on public land. They are
expected to focus on the State’s entitlement to preserve the regular offshore
lease sales and quarterly onshore lease sales that occurred before Biden took
office.
Attorney
General Landry has repeatedly said that Biden Officials cannot legally halt all
lease sales because Congress, by statute, has commanded that such lease sales
happen on a regular basis. He cited the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and
the Mineral Leasing Act as explicitly prohibiting the Biden Ban.
The
President declared in executive orders and his public statements that he
intends to stop all new leasing for exploration and production on federal lands
and on the Outer Continental Shelf. So while
the Biden Administration has argued its actions are only a “temporary” pause, nothing suggests the government’s actions are temporary
except that government says it is.
Attorney
General Landry, who has taken a number of legal actions against the Biden
Administration for its attack on American energy, also remarked on the Biden
Ban’s devastating effect on Americans.
“Joe
Biden is harming tens of thousands of American jobs using legal strategies that
he knows will fail, all in an attempt to satisfy his political base.
Furthermore, he is doing nothing to lower energy prices or relieve the pain at
the pump which are hurting the poor and the middle class.”