Posted on 07/08/2021 6:22:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
North Dakota on July 8 sued President Joe Biden’s administration over its cancellation of a planned auction of oil and gas leases.
Under the Mineral Leasing Act, lease sales must be held at least once a quarter in each state where eligible lands are available. But the lease sale scheduled for March was canceled and a regularly scheduled sale pegged for June was not held.
North Dakota officials said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court, that the illegal cancellations appeared to be in response to a Biden executive order that directed the secretary of the Interior to “pause new oil and natural gas leases” provided doing so was consistent with the law.
“Ignoring the Executive Orders admonition to act consistent with applicable law, the Federal Defendants’ actions violated several Federal statutes and exceeded their limited scope of discretionary authority,” the 30-page suit states.
The impact of the actions was compounded because the blocked development of federal lands has led to a delay in developing state and private interests, the suit added.
“I have taken this action to protect North Dakota’s economy, the jobs of our hard-working citizens, and North Dakota’s rights to control its own natural resources,” said North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican, in a statement announcing the filing.
The cost of the cancellations is already over $80 million, a number that could enter the billions unless the administration’s actions are stopped, Stenehjem asserted.
The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, two of the named defendants, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
When brought against Republican administrations, why, the whole thing comes to a screeching halt.
Sue the Biden administration on everything they do
Precisely
And exactly why North Dakota and any other state affected should ignore CornPop the same way all the Dem states ignored President Trump over immigration.
States should seize Federal lands as compensation when Feds do stuff like this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.