States’ Offshore Oil Leasing Ban Case Remains Live, Judge Rules

A federal judge declined to throw out Republican-led states’ challenge to the Biden administration’s offshore oil leasing halt, finding it’s an active policy debate likely to draw more action.

Though President Donald Trump has already undone his predecessor Joe Biden‘s leasing ban that spurred the five states’ lawsuit, the matter isn’t moot, according to a memorandum ruling filed May 30 in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Offshore drilling “has been the subject of an apparent tug-of-war between administrations for more than a decade,” so it’s likely to come up again, Judge James D. Cain ...