This article made it seem like Biden just reversed course on climate change, but that’s completely false. The Guardian forgets to mention a lot of details about how Biden has been fighting this since his first month in office. Here they are:

1. Biden put a moratorium on new drilling leases with section 4 of this executive order when he came into office.

2. This is the first time the Department of the Interior has allowed a new lease since Biden took office.

3. Why reverse the policy? Well, Biden has no choice.

13 GOP-led States sued the Biden Administration in 2021, and they won in 2022. Led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and accompanied by 12 other Red states, their case stated that Biden didn’t have the authority to halt new leases with an Executive Order. Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District Court of Louisiana, a Trump appointee, deemed the executive order unconstitutional and ordered the Biden administration to lift the ban.

4. Actual production of oil from this lease won’t happen for about a year due to the amount of work required to begin drilling. The Biden Administration plans to appeal the court’s decision so they can get the moratorium reinstated. Also, there is still time to enact policies that will reduce environmental damage.

Schedule/timeline for BLM Lease bidding system: https://nflss.blm.gov/leasesale/list

Harvard’s litigation tracker related to this battle: https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2021/12/leasing-pause-and-review/