American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2021 - 16

IndustryDigest
The service is requesting comments
or information from the public,
government agencies, scientific
community, industry or any other
interested parties concerning this
proposed rule within 60 days of its June
1 publication. Information on how to
submit comments is available at
www.regulations.gov by searching
under docket number FWS-R2-ES-
2021-0015. ❒
ANWR Oil And Gas
Leases Frozen By DOI
WASHINGTON-The U.S.
Department of the Interior has
suspended all activities related to
implementing the Coastal Plain oil and
gas leasing program in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge pending
completion of what it says will be a
comprehensive analysis under the
National Environmental Policy Act.
On June 1, Secretarial Order 3401 by
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland directed
DOI to initiate a comprehensive
environmental analysis to review the
potential impacts of the program and
address legal deficiencies in the current
leasing program's environmental review
under NEPA. The department notified
lessees that it was suspending oil and
gas leases in ANWR, pending the
review, to determine whether the leases
should be reaffirmed, voided or subject
to additional mitigation measures.
During the waning days of the
Trump administration, DOI notes, the
Bureau of Land Management
established and began administering
an oil and gas program in ANWR's
Coastal Plain. After the BLM prepared
the " Coastal Plain Oil and Gas
Leasing Program Environmental
Impact Statement " under NEPA, the
BLM held a lease sale on Jan. 6, 2021,
and subsequently issued 10-year leases
on nine tracts covering more than
430,000 acres.
Among the many executive orders
President Biden issued on his first day
in office was Executive Order 13990,
which directed DOI to review oil and
gas activity in the Arctic refuge (AOGR,
Feb. 2021, pg. 26). After conducting the
review, the department claimed it had
identified defects in the underlying
record of decision supporting the leases,
including the lack of analysis of a
16 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
reasonable range of alternatives in the
environmental impact statement
conducted under NEPA. ❒
Supreme Court Nixes
New Jersey's Attempt To
Block PennEast Pipeline
WASHINGTON-The U.S.
Supreme Court in late June issued a
ruling that oil and gas advocates say
will blunt some state governments'
efforts to frustrate oil and gas
infrastructure development.
According to the Energy,
Equipment & Infrastructure Alliance,
the court ruled 5-4 on June 29 that
New Jersey could not prevent PennEast
Pipeline from exercising eminent
domain on state-owned lands along the
project's route. The decision reversed a
lower court ruling that had blocked the
project from moving forward through
New Jersey.
" We cannot overstate the importance
of this ruling, " EEIA emphasizes. " If it
had gone against us, precedent would
have been set making it practically
impossible to construct a pipeline
through any state whose government
was opposed to the project. "
PennEast notes that the proposed
project aims to build a 116-mile mile
natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania
to New Jersey. Companies participating
in the joint venture are NJR Pipeline
Co., SJI Midstream, Southern Company
Gas, Spectra Energy Partners and UGI
Energy Services.
" We are pleased the Supreme Court
kept intact more than seven decades of
legal precedent for the families and
businesses who benefit from more
affordable, reliable energy, " said
PennEast Board of Managers Chairman
Anthony Cox after the ruling. " This
decision is about more than just the
PennEast project; it protects consumers
who rely on infrastructure projects-
found to be in the public benefit after
thorough scientific and environmental
reviews-from being denied access to
much-needed energy by narrow state
political interests. PennEast understood
that New Jersey brought this case for
political purposes, but energy crises in
recent years in California, Texas and
New England have clearly
demonstrated why interstate natural gas
infrastructure is so vital for our way of
life, public safety and enabling clean
energy goals. "
Press accounts note that PennEast
received Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission approval to build the
pipeline in 2018, after which the
company sued New Jersey over stateowned
lands the state refused to yield.
Mark Burghardt a partner at law firm
Dorsey & Whitney's oil and gas group,
agrees the ruling is the right one.
" Allowing states to block the use of
eminent domain for national
infrastructure projects would give
individual states veto power over any
project they don't agree with, " he
reasons. " What a slippery slope.
" The takings clause has long provided
that the federal government cannot take
private property for a public purpose
without just compensation, " he adds.
" Just compensation, and not individual
policy decisions of any specific
landowner, even a state, should be the
measuring stick. Put differently, parties
should be justly compensated for the
value of their land, but owning this
property should not allow them to decide
whether a particular project can be built.
This reasoning should not change just
because the landowner is a state. " ❒
Federal Judge Stays
Biden's Leasing Pause
MONROE, LA.-The Biden
administration may have overstepped its
authority when it froze new oil and gas
leasing on federal lands and waters, a
federal judge held in mid-June.
However, even though the court issued
an injunction against the
administration's efforts to halt leasing in
federal areas, some experts and industry
advocates warn that the development
will not quickly yield a slew of new
federal mineral leases.
On June 15, Federal Judge Terry A.
Doughty in the U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Louisiana
enjoined and restrained Biden
administration officials from pausing
new oil and gas leases on public lands
and waters as set forth in Section 208 of
Biden's Executive Order 14008. Shortly
after that EO was issued, Louisiana and
12 other states sued the administration,
claiming it violated the Mineral Leasing
Act and the Outer Continental Shelf
Lands Act, Energy In Depth notes.
According to court documents,
http://www.regulations.gov
American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2021

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