"Attorneys say they aren’t expecting the Interior Department to announce an immediate oil and gas lease sale, after the agency said Monday that it’ll proceed with leasing following a federal court injunction.
Setting the day and time of an oil and gas lease sale requires advance planning, and “you cannot wake up one morning and just say, let’s have a lease sale tomorrow or in, say, 30 days, without being ready,” said Sam Kalen, a natural resources law professor at the University of Wyoming.
Interior announced Monday it would restart lease sales, more than two months after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction against the White House’s leasing pause. But the agency still hasn’t made an official notice of an upcoming lease sale, either on shore or offshore.
“In complying with the district court’s mandate, Interior will continue to exercise the authority and discretion provided under the law to conduct leasing in a manner that takes into account the program’s many deficiencies,” including impacts to tribes, the climate and the environment, the announcement said."
Bobby Magill reports for Bloomberg Environment August 17, 2021.
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