Western Energy Alliance in Federal Court Friday Challenging the Biden Administration’s Failure to Hold Quarterly Lease Sales

DENVER – Western Energy Alliance will appear in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming on Friday morning in its lawsuit challenging the Department of the Interior’s failure to hold quarterly onshore oil and natural gas lease sales. The suit, Western Energy Alliance v Biden, was filed in January 2021 after President Biden signed the Executive Order on Climate Change (#14008) that banned lease sales. While lease sales have been scheduled for June, there are no plans to resume regular quarterly sales afterwards, a clear violation of the Mineral Leasing Act. 

The Alliance requested oral arguments in February after Interior missed the deadline to hold a sale in the first quarter of 2022, extending the leasing ban into the fifth quarter and in continued defiance of a June 2021 federal court order from the Western District of Louisiana. The Alliance will be represented by L. Poe Leggette, Mark S. Barron, and Alexander K. Obrecht of BakerHostetler.
 
Western Energy Alliance president Kathleen Sgamma will be available for questions prior to and after the hearing.
 
What:   Oral arguments on Western Energy Alliance v Biden
 
When:  Friday, May 13th, 9:30 am MT
 
Where: U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming
               Joseph C. O'Mahoney Federal Center
              2120 Capitol Avenue, Room 2131
              Cheyenne, WY 82001

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