Legal Filing Targets North Dakota’s Latest Lawsuit to Force More Oil, Gas Lease Sales on Public Lands

BISMARCK, ND. – Climate and conservation groups today defended the Biden administration in a brief responding to a federal lawsuit filed by North Dakota to force the federal government to hold more oil and gas leasehold sales in the state.

North Dakota sued last month, alleging that the US Bureau of Land Management broke the law by not offering oil and gas leases every three months. North Dakota is mimicking lawsuits filed in December by the state of Wyoming and industry groups and wants the court to order the BLM to conduct quarterly lease sales.

“We will do everything in our power to stop North Dakota’s dangerous plan to lease more public land for fracking,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The federal government retains broad powers to manage public lands for the greater good, and that includes not auctioning them off, allowing the oil and gas industry to continue killing the climate.”

It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits by oil and gas states and industry groups trying to rewrite federal laws in favor of fossil-fuel companies. However, the Supreme Court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that the Department of the Interior and the BLM have broad discretion to determine the timing and scope of lease sales, including not going ahead with them at all.

“North Dakota is trying to rewrite the law so oil and gas companies can force the government to offer new leases whenever the industry wants it to,” said Michael Freeman, a senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office. “But BLM’s job is to manage lands in the public interest, not the whims of the oil and gas industry. We ask the court to reject North Dakota’s radical and far-fetched arguments.”

North Dakota’s new lawsuit follows a similar lawsuit in 2021 seeking the postponement of rental sales. In September, US District Judge Scott Skavdahl dismissed similar claims by the fossil fuel industry and the state of Wyoming. The judge ruled that the BLM acted within its statutory powers in postponing rental sales to ensure it fully accounted for potential environmental damage.

“North Dakota is asking the court to turn over the lock keys to taxpayer-owned oil and gas resources, let alone taxpayer-owned public lands,” said Melissa Hornbein, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. “The assertion of state control over federally owned resources — which are expressly designed to be managed according to the principles of multiple use — is not based on any federal legal authority.”

Federal production of fossil fuels causes nearly a quarter of US carbon pollution, while industrializing land, polluting air and water, and destroying wildlife habitat. Scientific analysis shows that carbon pollution from the world’s already producing fossil fuel developments, when fully developed, will drive warming to over 1.5 degrees Celsius. To avoid such warming, new investment in fossil fuel projects must be halted and production halted to keep up to 40% of already developed fields underground.

“The oil and gas industry needs to take ‘no’ for an answer,” said Dan Ritzman, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands, Water, Wildlife. “By pursuing this lawsuit, the big polluters are going against science and precedent, and endangering our communities and public lands. We should protect these landscapes and not auction them off for private profit.”

“The Department of the Interior must use its discretion to determine whether or not to lease land for new oil and gas exploration,” said Linda Weiss, board member of the Dakota Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils. “I am disappointed in BLM’s decision to resume leasing after the pause requested by President Biden, which reflects the agency’s long history of preferential treatment at the expense of people and the environment.”

Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center are representing a coalition of conservation groups in the North Dakota lawsuit. Earthjustice represents the Sierra Club. The Western Environmental Law Center represents the Dakota Resource Council, the Western Organization of Resource Councils, and the Center for Biological Diversity.