BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota has sued the Biden administration over its suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land and water. President Joe Biden shut down oil and gas lease sales from the nation’s public lands and waters in his first days in office, citing worries about climate change. The lawsuit filed Wednesday claims the move is unlawful and will cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to reschedule two lease sales that already have been canceled and block the agency from revoking others in the future.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum Thursday issued a statement in support of Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s legal challenge to a federal ban on new oil and natural gas leasing on public lands. Stenehjem filed the lawsuit Wednesday against the federal government, including the Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Land Management.

 

“Rather than working with states on forward-looking innovation and solutions for carbon management, this unlawful ban is a backward-looking, top-down regulation that threatens to further drive up the price at the pump and deny hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to our schools, communities and state,” Burgum said. “North Dakota has a robust energy industry and some of the cleanest air and water in the nation because we have developed our resources responsibly with an all-of-the-above energy approach. This misguided ban hurts hardworking Americans, puts our energy security at risk and fails to solve the problem for the environment. It’s bad for the country, and we will continue to oppose it as we fully support the attorney general’s actions.”

 

In February, Burgum and 16 fellow governors signed a letter to President Biden asking him to withdraw Executive Order 14008, issued on Jan. 27, 2021, which banned new oil and gas development on federal land and in offshore waters.