Page 6 - NorthAmOil Week 12 2021

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

Lawsuits launched against

Biden’s oil and gas decisions

States opposed to US President Joe Biden’s first oil and gas moves, including

the cancellation of the Keystone XL permit, have begun contesting the

decisions in the courts

US THE first lawsuits have been launched contest- the lawsuit claiming that the move will lead to
ing certain major oil and gas decisions made by “thousands of Americans losing their jobs” and
WHAT: US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, since he could also deprive state and local governments
Certain states have took office in January. of “millions of dollars in revenues”.
united to launch lawsuits Last week, 21 states led by Texas and Mon- The lawsuit claims that Biden and his admin-
contesting major oil and tana joined forces to launch a lawsuit contesting istration have provided no reason for their
gas decisions made so Biden’s move to revoke the cross-border permit actions in relation to Keystone XL.
far by US President Joe for the Keystone XL pipeline. Then this week, Indeed, in a statement on the lawsuit, Mon-
Biden. 13 states filed a lawsuit against Biden’s morato- tana Attorney General Austin Knudsen called
rium on oil and gas leasing on federal land and Biden’s revocation of the permit “an empty vir-
WHY: in federal waters. tue signal to his wealthy coastal elite donors”.
They argue that the In the Keystone XL case, some of the states “The power to regulate foreign and interstate
decisions represent have Democrat governors, but all have Repub- commerce belongs to Congress – not the Presi-
overreach or bypassed lican attorneys general. A similar trend can be dent. This is another example of Joe Biden over-
necessary legal steps. seen among the states involved in the lawsuit stepping his constitutional role to the detriment
contesting the federal leasing moratorium. of Montanans,” he stated.
WHAT NEXT: The states involved in these lawsuits are sup- Biden, in the executive order that revoked
Biden is likely to face porters of oil and gas development, while Biden the Keystone XL permit, said the pipeline was
further resistance from has taken aggressive early moves in favour of not in the national interest, and allowing it to
states and other players shifting away from fossil fuels over the long go ahead would not be consistent with his cli-
that support the oil term. Indeed, Biden has sought to emphasise mate and economic policy. This is based on con-
and gas industry as he the role decarbonisation will play in his energy cerns over the carbon intensity of the oil sands
pursues decarbonisation. agenda, and while he has talked up job crea- – an issue raised by former US President Barack
tion in the clean energy sector, his stance has Obama, under whom Biden served as vice-pres-
been met with considerable resistance from the ident, and who originally rejected the Keystone Keystone XL’s
industry and its supporters. XL permit before his successor Donald Trump
The motivations of some of the states involved approved the project. operator, TC
have been dismissed as purely political – for It is worth noting that Keystone XL’s opera- Energy, has not
example the participation of states Keystone XL tor, TC Energy, has not launched its own legal
would not cross in that lawsuit – though others action against the Biden administration or launched its
stand to be directly affected by Biden’s decisions. involved itself in this lawsuit, and has instead
been winding up activity related to the pipe- own legal action
Keystone XL line’s construction. Indeed, the company has
The cancellation of Keystone XL’s cross-border not commented on the lawsuit thus far, and last against the Biden
permit came on Biden’s first day in office, and the month, during the company’s fourth-quarter administration or
move has since been considered to have effec- earnings call, TC Energy executives said the
tively killed off the pipeline, which would have company’s tolerance for exposure to permit- involved itself in
carried crude from Canada’s oil sands to the US. ting risks had changed.
However, last week’s lawsuit comes as a last-ditch This comes after TC Energy had previously this lawsuit.
effort to revive the project. contested the Obama administration’s deci-
The lawsuit argues that revoking the sion on Keystone XL in a Texas federal court,
cross-border permit is a “regulation of inter- but dropped that lawsuit in 2017 when Trump
state and international commerce” that should granted a permit for the pipeline. The compa-
be left to US Congress, with Biden’s move thus ny’s silence now suggests that it may be ready
representing an overreach. The revocation is to move on from Keystone XL and focus on less
also described as “arbitrary and capricious”, with contentious projects.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2021