For Immediate Release: Friday, September 22, 2023 NOIA Contact: jwilliams@noia.org
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana Preliminary Injunction Corrects Biden Restrictions on Gulf Energy Development
Washington, D.C. – Erik Milito, President of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), issued the following statement in response to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana’s preliminary injunction finding that the implementation of the challenged actions was procedurally invalid and that Interior’s decision was arbitrary and capricious. This injunction blocks the new restrictions related to the Rice’s whale in the Final Notice of Sale for Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 261 and restores millions of acres to the sale.
“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.
“In a period when inflation is increasing expenses for Americans, particularly in terms of gasoline prices, we must fully harness America’s energy production capabilities, particularly those offshore. Our leaders should stop ignoring the vast benefits that U.S. offshore oil and gas production provides to Americans. This includes an abundance of energy resources, high-paying job opportunities, environmentally responsible low carbon output, support for coastal resilience and restoration, and enhanced national security, among numerous other benefits.”
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About NOIA The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) represents and advances a dynamic and growing offshore energy industry, providing solutions that support communities and protect our workers, the public and our environment.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will conduct Lease Sale 261 tomorrow morning. No doubt there will be a lot of bids on blocks that would have otherwise been excluded from the sale.
Rice’s whales are primarily located in the yellow and back outlined area in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area off-limits to oil & gas exploration. The Biden administration attempted to illegally remove the “Rice’s Whale Expanded Area” (dark blue area on map below) from this, and all future, lease sales.
The Biden administration attempted to exclude one of the most active areas from Sale 261. The Flex Trend was one of the first deepwater plays the location of dozens of production platforms and other infrastructure. Recent advances in seismic imaging have rejuvenated this play.
Reprocessed Flex Trend data reveals near-field GoM potential
May 19, 2021
PGS has released more full integrity products from the Flex Vision data rejuvenation program in the Gulf of Mexico.
Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – PGS has released more full integrity products from the Flex Vision data rejuvenation program in the Gulf of Mexico.
The application of new imaging technology to the Flex Trend has revealed near-field opportunities that boost potential far beyond original estimates, the company said.
New data unlocks opportunities adjacent to existing discoveries, to enable infrastructure-led exploration in an area of the Gulf of Mexico that has been producing oil and gas for more than two decades. Salt, the biggest challenge for exploration on the Flex Trend, is resolved with high-quality depth imaging and improved velocity control.
Oil production isn’t “under Biden.” Biden has no control over oil production from private and state-owned leases. About 24% of our total domestic crude oil production comes from Federal leases. This production is conducted under Federal laws passed by Congress. It is not “under Biden.” Although Biden has done everything in his power to inhibit oil production. These generally unlawful actions haven’t reduced current production. They will delay and/or reduce future production. This is particularly true for offshore production.
Biden: I Wanted ‘to Stop All Drilling’ on the Coasts and Gulf, Got Blocked by Courts
During an interview with The Weather Channel that is set to air on Wednesday, a portion of which aired on Tuesday, President Joe Biden said that he “wanted to stop all drilling on the East Coast and the West Coast and in the Gulf” but was blocked by the courts from doing so.
From the time a lease is awarded, it can take years to establish production. Biden’s intent is to reduce future production by delaying and slowing down the pace of leasing.
Biden’s Abysmal Lease Record
When Biden became President, he immediately placed a moratorium on lease sales supposedly for agencies to review their practices due to climate change. During his first 19 months in office, President Biden leased fewer acres for offshore oil and gas production than any other President before him since the inception of offshore drilling rights. Not since Harry Truman have fewer acres of federal land or offshore rights to develop oil and gas resources been leased by a U.S. president. Under President Truman, offshore drilling was just beginning and the federal government did not yet control the deep-water leases that have made up the largest part of the federal oil-and-gas program. It is clear from the graph below that the Biden administration is withholding U.S. energy development at a time when the world is facing an energy crisis and consumers are experiencing very high energy prices. President Biden is withholding resources that Americans own, resulting in gasoline prices reaching an all-time high of $5 a gallon in June 2022 and remaining over a dollar per gallon above the gas price when he took office The following graph from the Wall Street Journal indicates how few acres have been leased during Biden’s first 19 months in office despite the law requiring oil and natural gas lease sales.
Meanwhile, rival litigation filed by Earthjustice and other prominent environmental groups seeks to halt the lease sale. The organizations say the lease sale violates the National Environmental Policy. They say the administration failed to account for health threats to Gulf Coast communities near oil refineries and didn’t adequately the effects of new fossil fuel development on the climate.
They filed their lawsuit in the District of Columbia Circuit, where Federal judges routinely put left-wing causes above the law. The Inflation Reduction Act requires that Sale 261 be held before September 30, 2023.
These same environmental activists will likely try to prevent BOEM from issuing a new five-year leasing plan… Something BOEM is legally required to do.
In September, Interior is also expected to release its final proposed Five-Year Program (National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program) for offshore oil and gas leasing this September. The final plan, which lasts through 2028, could include as many as 11 new offshore lease sales, according to the proposed program. Holding 11 new fossil fuel auctions would sanction up to 70 years of additional fossil-fuel extraction with the potential to emit up to 3.5 billion tons of carbon pollution.
The sale has been postponed to early November. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied almost all of the Dept of the Interior’s appeal, except for a six-week delay…
IT IS ORDERED that appellants’ opposed motion for partial stay pending appeal is GRANTED in part. The preliminary injunction that was entered by the Memorandum Order of September 21, 2023, is hereby AMENDED only in that the sale that was set for September 27, 2023, is ORDERED to take place by November 8, 2023. No extension will be granted. That is to say: Insofar as the preliminary injunction is concerned, the final paragraph of the Memorandum Order remains in effect, pending appeal of the preliminary injunction, with the exception that “September 30, 2023,” is changed to “November 8, 2023.”
True.
We solve that on Nov 8 2024. Landslide beyond their ability to rig that election like in 2020. And their rigging ability is now better known and less.
As just one example (each of the six for sure stolen swing states has different issues), in Wisconsin two counties, Madison and Milwaukee, declared that COVID fear was sufficient to declare ‘indefinitely confined’ (IC) status which is an automatic mail in without voter ID verification. 2018, about 80k ‘indefinitely confined’ votes. In 2020, about 250k. The Biden Wi margin was only about 20k. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has since held the Madison and Milwaukee county IC instructions unconstitutional (Wi constitution and clear state voter law). They also since declared that stand alone mail in drop boxes are unconstitutional (the 2000 muoes trick used across several states including Wisconsin as documented by True the Vote). So Wisconsin cannot be stolen in 2024 like it was in 2020.
Kari Lake is trying to clean up Maricopa County AZ based on 2022.
The Michigan legislature fired and is also trying to impeach its supervisor of elections, which could clean up the documented Detroit steal (two vans delivering ‘ballots’ at 0330, after the late counting shift left and before the early shift arrived, caught on CCTV.
If THEY really want to put an end to Offshore drilling, THEY should be all for the leases to be granted…then place the highest bids for the lease acreage and simply Not Drill
Rud, why do you suppose VP Kamala Harris doesn’t invoke the 25 Amendment and have Biden given a Cognitive Decline examination? She could be President for a year or so. Afterall, the Demos intend to dump her anyway. This election cycle could get really dramatic, wait for it.
She hasn’t the support she needs from all the department heads. They all know that controlling Joe is much easier than her. They’ll hold on to Biden like “Weekend At Bernie’s” if they have to; at least until the convention. Then the puppet will announce he’s decided not to run after all and they will pull the switcheroo.
I hope you are correct. Several constitutional violations occurred in 2020 and there is no question of wide-spread fraud in at least the six states you reference. However, some of that fraud goes back well before 2020, and given the level of corruption in the DOJ and the MSM, dems likely believe they can continue committing fraud with virtual impunity.
Paraphrasing Stein’s Law (economics): ‘What can’t go on won’t go on’.
ResourceGuy
September 26, 2023 2:23 pm
Better engineer some huge windmills on top of the rigs to get past the whale issue. That’s just for pure regulatory gamesmanship mind you like the Obama Biden grand masters.
John Oliver
September 26, 2023 2:36 pm
All the responses from these people in the leftist cabal are evasive, non responsive, illogical, obstructionists BS. Everything is designed to destroy the United States as we know it.
No drilling, electric vehicles with no way to charge em all. ( and for the military too) “Hey Putin can we have a time out to charge our vehicles? We’re saving the planet .” And can we get an increase on the US s credit card. To finance some more wind mills and pay illegal aliens $2200 month plus Medicaid and housing.
But don’t let anyone drill for that stuff that makes it all actually work in anyplace except woke fantasy land. Oh please.
Funny how zealots always circumvent the law, established procedures, and societal norms to get their way. They’re imposing their will without consent of the governed; what a dictator does.
If you’re trying to impose your will by breaking the law, bypassing established procedures, or defying societal norms (defacing works of art, gluing yourself to a tennis court, or generally acting like a crazy person), you’re a zealot. Or an autocrat. Or both. And you’re annoying the @#$* out of everyone else, so stop it or risk the wrath of everyone else.
Joe Biden must have a mental disorder that prevents him from learning from past mistakes . . . that, or he just willingly ignores the rule of law and legal precedent.
Just look at the slap-down he experienced back in 2021 on a related issue (not mentioned in the above article):
“Judge Terry A. Doughty of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the administration, saying that the power to pause offshore oil and gas leases ‘lies solely with Congress’ because it was the legislative branch that originally made federal lands and waters available for leasing.”
— https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/climate/biden-drilling-federal-land.html
I don’t think Biden understands past or future. Nor can he relate present to past or present to future. He simply exists in the moment and does what his puppeteers make him do. Puppets don’t learn.
Don’t get to excited, dems have never seen a court ruling or law they couldn’t circumvent.
William Howard
September 26, 2023 8:26 pm
Saving the whales – right – wonder when Buyden will stop offshore wind projects that are killing whales or when environmental groups will sue & settle,to stop offshore wind
The sale has been postponed to early November. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied almost all of the Dept of the Interior’s appeal, except for a six-week delay…
IT IS ORDERED that appellants’ opposed motion for partial stay pending appeal is GRANTED in part. The preliminary injunction that was entered by the Memorandum Order of September 21, 2023, is hereby AMENDED only in that the sale that was set for September 27, 2023, is ORDERED to take place by November 8, 2023. No extension will be granted. That is to say: Insofar as the preliminary injunction is concerned, the final paragraph of the Memorandum Order remains in effect, pending appeal of the preliminary injunction, with the exception that “September 30, 2023,” is changed to “November 8, 2023.”
This is the circus part of bread and circus. Greens versus Blues.
The ruling class (notice who they are) distracts all from the ratchet that has just been tightened two more clicks, by loosening the ratchet one click.
Here, there, all over the place. It gets a bit worse, then it gets a little bit better. Yaaaay we won!
It’s a green war. The good guys won this skirmish, but it never ends until the root cause—the myth of CAGW—is itself uprooted.
The only problem is that the Biden Administration never obeys court orders and rulings.
True.
We solve that on Nov 8 2024. Landslide beyond their ability to rig that election like in 2020. And their rigging ability is now better known and less.
As just one example (each of the six for sure stolen swing states has different issues), in Wisconsin two counties, Madison and Milwaukee, declared that COVID fear was sufficient to declare ‘indefinitely confined’ (IC) status which is an automatic mail in without voter ID verification. 2018, about 80k ‘indefinitely confined’ votes. In 2020, about 250k. The Biden Wi margin was only about 20k. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has since held the Madison and Milwaukee county IC instructions unconstitutional (Wi constitution and clear state voter law). They also since declared that stand alone mail in drop boxes are unconstitutional (the 2000 muoes trick used across several states including Wisconsin as documented by True the Vote). So Wisconsin cannot be stolen in 2024 like it was in 2020.
Kari Lake is trying to clean up Maricopa County AZ based on 2022.
The Michigan legislature fired and is also trying to impeach its supervisor of elections, which could clean up the documented Detroit steal (two vans delivering ‘ballots’ at 0330, after the late counting shift left and before the early shift arrived, caught on CCTV.
If THEY really want to put an end to Offshore drilling, THEY should be all for the leases to be granted…then place the highest bids for the lease acreage and simply Not Drill
Rud, why do you suppose VP Kamala Harris doesn’t invoke the 25 Amendment and have Biden given a Cognitive Decline examination? She could be President for a year or so. Afterall, the Demos intend to dump her anyway. This election cycle could get really dramatic, wait for it.
She is too dumb to think of that.
And hopefully her minders are clever enough NOT to suggest it to her. !
Can’t expect much from a twofer– no, correction- a threefer.
Rumour has it…. she is open to any suggestion.
She hasn’t the support she needs from all the department heads. They all know that controlling Joe is much easier than her. They’ll hold on to Biden like “Weekend At Bernie’s” if they have to; at least until the convention. Then the puppet will announce he’s decided not to run after all and they will pull the switcheroo.
I hope you are correct. Several constitutional violations occurred in 2020 and there is no question of wide-spread fraud in at least the six states you reference. However, some of that fraud goes back well before 2020, and given the level of corruption in the DOJ and the MSM, dems likely believe they can continue committing fraud with virtual impunity.
After 30+ years… is the tide finally starting to turn?
Dunno, but am sure it eventually must. I have three basic reasons for ‘founded’ tide turn optimism.
Paraphrasing Stein’s Law (economics): ‘What can’t go on won’t go on’.
Better engineer some huge windmills on top of the rigs to get past the whale issue. That’s just for pure regulatory gamesmanship mind you like the Obama Biden grand masters.
All the responses from these people in the leftist cabal are evasive, non responsive, illogical, obstructionists BS. Everything is designed to destroy the United States as we know it.
No drilling, electric vehicles with no way to charge em all. ( and for the military too) “Hey Putin can we have a time out to charge our vehicles? We’re saving the planet .” And can we get an increase on the US s credit card. To finance some more wind mills and pay illegal aliens $2200 month plus Medicaid and housing.
But don’t let anyone drill for that stuff that makes it all actually work in anyplace except woke fantasy land. Oh please.
“pay illegal aliens $2200 month plus Medicaid and housing”
That’s FAR more than I get on my measly social insecurity check after working 50 years.
Funny how zealots always circumvent the law, established procedures, and societal norms to get their way. They’re imposing their will without consent of the governed; what a dictator does.
If you’re trying to impose your will by breaking the law, bypassing established procedures, or defying societal norms (defacing works of art, gluing yourself to a tennis court, or generally acting like a crazy person), you’re a zealot. Or an autocrat. Or both. And you’re annoying the @#$* out of everyone else, so stop it or risk the wrath of everyone else.
Joe Biden must have a mental disorder that prevents him from learning from past mistakes . . . that, or he just willingly ignores the rule of law and legal precedent.
Just look at the slap-down he experienced back in 2021 on a related issue (not mentioned in the above article):
“Judge Terry A. Doughty of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the administration, saying that the power to pause offshore oil and gas leases ‘lies solely with Congress’ because it was the legislative branch that originally made federal lands and waters available for leasing.”
— https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/climate/biden-drilling-federal-land.html
I don’t think Biden understands past or future. Nor can he relate present to past or present to future. He simply exists in the moment and does what his puppeteers make him do. Puppets don’t learn.
However, strangely, his nose isn’t growing.
Joey Biden has the most massive carbon footprint of anyone ….past time to go Joe….get outta Dodge….and don’t come back…you hack. Bye bye Biden.
Off topic…
Here is a tongue and cheek article about how long it would take to achieve Greta’s perfect renewable world.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#sent/FMfcgzGtxKRbKfZsBtgGXmhcXBzxqFdK
Bad link it gores to my email..couldn’t delete
New link
overeignman.com/trends/it-will-take-nearly-7000-years-to-achieve-greta-thunbergs-fantasy-148186/
.sovereignman.com/trends/it-will-take-nearly-7000-years-to-achieve-greta-thunbergs-fantasy-148186/
Biden doesn’t hate oil, he just hates US oil.
Don’t get to excited, dems have never seen a court ruling or law they couldn’t circumvent.
Saving the whales – right – wonder when Buyden will stop offshore wind projects that are killing whales or when environmental groups will sue & settle,to stop offshore wind
I like “Buyden.”
It’s very odd how Green activists ignore the plight of whales when it conflicts with their aim of destroying our prosperity and way of life.
Excellent David, thanks!
I’ll post the bid map when it comes out.
The sale has been postponed to early November. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied almost all of the Dept of the Interior’s appeal, except for a six-week delay…
https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/oil-gas-energy/leasing/23-30666_order.pdf
All their other motions were denied.
This is the circus part of bread and circus. Greens versus Blues.
The ruling class (notice who they are) distracts all from the ratchet that has just been tightened two more clicks, by loosening the ratchet one click.
Here, there, all over the place. It gets a bit worse, then it gets a little bit better. Yaaaay we won!