The Biden administration has been slapped with a lawsuit claiming that it overreached when it announced a moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal land.
In an executive order he signed Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared that “the Secretary of the Interior shall pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of Federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices in light of the Secretary of the Interior’s broad stewardship responsibilities over the public lands and in offshore waters, including potential climate and other impacts associated with oil and gas activities on public lands or in offshore waters.”
However, the Western Energy Alliance said that the open-ended language means that the pause is the equivalent of a ban on new leases. The alliance represents 200 energy-sector companies.
“The type of programmatic environmental analysis regarding climate change that has been announced will take years to complete, likely lasting most if not all of the president’s first term,” it said in a news release.
The lawsuit said the order should be blocked by the courts.
Replies
What Federa Land? The Feds are required to either purchase state land lawfully from the state or to be gifted land via the state legislatures. Seizures are not gifts nor are they purchases.
Exactly... all of those millions of acres under federal management Constitutionally belong to the States... I doubt any of the State Legislatures understand or know the Constitution assigns lands and property between the States and Federal Government.
Lands not in a State are under the sole jurisdiction of the Federal Government... Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc. All other lands not ceded by a state for CONSTITUTIONAL PURPOSES belong to the States and its citizens. A state may not cessed lands to the Federal GOvernment that is not for one of the specific purposes found in Article 1, Section 8, clause 17.
States were supposed to be the MASTERS of the Republic... The Federal Government is their servant. It is past time to reassert state rights. However, that will take organizing a State Caucus for Reform and probably an Article 5 convention to unequivocally strip the federal government of its illegally USURP powers.
Good points. Thank you.
The Federal Government has no constitutional power to regulate state lands or to issue edicts regarding the use of private lands... that authority has been usurped from the states ... as a reserved power, under the 10th Amendment. We need the States to stand up for their citizen's rights. Governors are to represent the rights of his State and its citizens, which includes protecting their NATURAL RESOURCES and title to all the lands within their borders... less any ceded to the Federal GOvernment for needful government buildings and facilities as dictated in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the US Constitution.
States are the sovereign with the Constitutional authority to regulate public lands... including oil and gas leases, not the Federal Government. The revenues from such leases are also the property of the states wherein the lease is operating. Stop the thieves in DC...return to CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER.
Let the states assert that the US Constitution grants no lands to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT except... those lands which the States have ceded to the Federal Government for the SPECIFIC purposes outlined in the Constitution. That the Federal Government has overreached its constitutional authority and claims unconstitutional title to massive tracts of State lands, unnecessary to the needs of executing the Federal Government. Any land ceded to the Federal Government for purposes outside of those granted in the US Constitution are Constitutionally void and remain the property of the State wherein it is located.
See: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 US Constitution:
"To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And"
It is time for the soverign states to notify the Department of the Interior and the BLM that they have no lands in their possession other than those needful buildings, Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, and ten square miles reserved as the Seat of Government...
All other lands are hereby reserved for the several states and are under their sole legislative and government administration... The Federal Government needs to be evicted from those lands within the soverign states which are not Constitutionally authorized to be held as possessions of the Federal Government. See: Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 above. Where are the States, can't they read? The Constitution is abundantly clear. The Federal Government may own and possess only those lands ceded to them by State Legislatures for the purposes allowed in the US constitution. Large tracts of native lands are the sole possession of the States, within whose borders they are located.
Each State should mobilize its militia and post them at the ready... to evict federal usurpers who have unconstitutionally laid claim to large sections of State-owned lands... lands they are not entitled to own or manage... Period. The Federal Government is only granted lands by cession of the States and for specific Constitutional Purposes. National Parks must be returned to the States, National wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and National forests all belong to the States not the thieves in DC.
Hence, the Federal Governments' power to lease oil, gas, minerals, grazing rights, etc. are null and void... the States must act to preserve their citizens claims to the land and their rights to regulate there use and purposes... not as the dictates of a misguided and unlawful edict from an overreaching federal government.
If we had a judicial Branch of Government devoted to the purpose of which it was intended by the Constitution, then we would not have matters such as this hanging over our heads, or being addressed by lower courts that no longer even bother to pretend that Justice matters, but politics do.
Article VI, and specifically the second Paragraph of it, leaves no wiggle room for any Judge, from any State, or any State Court whatsoever, to worm themselves out of their promise to uphold what they are bound by.
The third Paragraph spells out that this binding does not exclude any government officials, Federal or State. There is no 'legal' loophole to escape it. There is no 'States Rights' to conduct themselves as they see fit, but to bind themselves to the Rule of Law . It is not difficult to understand. Even I can do it.
The Supreme Court has both Original and Appellate Jurisdiction, depending on who is affected by a matter. Article III spells this out. Congress will not provide an exception to any matter that affects the entire Nation. The Matter of a corrupted election is not one to be excepted, dismissed, or deemed to have no standing by some 'judge' in a lower court. The mountains of evidence must be examined and the Supreme Court has the Duty to do it.
Division and social unrest is not the product of the Rule of Law. Dereliction of duty is. Lawlessness results from it.
The purpose of the Constitution is to bind us together, not divide us. We are a single Nation. We are the UNITED states.
Ask yourself this if you have not already done so. Who does Biden serve? I mean, really. Who does this guy serve? The Supreme Court should examine both Why is he the Executive, and Who is he serving.
I don't think either question is difficult in reaching honest answer. Why aren't they even asked?