Federal Court Blocks Trump Order On Arctic Drilling

The New York Times reports:

In a legal blow to President Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.

The decision, by Judge Sharon Gleason in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, concluded late Friday that President Barack Obama’s 2015 and 2016 withdrawal of about 125 million acres of Arctic Ocean from drilling “will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress.”

She wrote that an April 2017 executive order by Mr. Trump revoking the drilling ban “is unlawful, as it exceeded the president’s authority.”

Trump’s energy dominance agenda was hit by 3 legal setbacks in 3 days as judges ruled that his proposal for offshore leasing in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, and gas drilling in CO, are illegal. And there are more lawsuits pending. https://t.co/yvjOx8PuSq @eilperin eilperin

— Darryl Fears (@bydarrylfears) March 30, 2019

Judge throws out President Trump’s executive order overturning Obama-era arctic drilling banhttps://t.co/QfukZH48pA

— TIME (@TIME) March 30, 2019