Biden’s Oil-Gas Lease Plan Challenged by Environmental Groups

Environmental groups sued the Biden administration to block its revival of plans to allow new oil drilling on public land in western states.

The Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and eight other national and regional environmental groups said the administration’s plan to sell 173 oil and gas leases violates the US environmental laws.

A week after taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden paused the sale of oil and gas leases and ordered the Interior Department to assess the environmental costs of new drilling, including on global warming.

Five months later, a federal judge in Louisiana invalidated the moratorium ...