A federal judge struck down a Biden administration rule that would place significant restrictions on an offshore oil and gas lease sale, according to an order issued on Thursday.
In the Thursday evening ruling, Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana ordered the Biden administration to expand its sale of the Gulf of Mexico oil leases later this month, according to multiple news reports. It came after the state of Louisiana, the American Petroleum Institute group, Chevron, and Shell filed a lawsuit to block the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s restrictions on Lease Sale 261, a sale that is scheduled for next week.
