A contested court ruling overturning the White House’s power to regulate environmental reviews is looming over a pending legal dispute about the risks posed by a 2023 offshore oil and gas lease sale.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a surprise ruling finding the White House Council on Environmental Quality could not issue National Environmental Policy Act regulations for how federal agencies comply with the statute.
The decision has raised questions about how courts should proceed in a number of other pending NEPA lawsuits, particularly since both parties in the case — the Marin Audubon Society and the Biden administration — have asked a full panel of active D.C. Circuit judges to reconsider the decision on CEQ’s authority.
On Friday, the American Petroleum Institute and Chevron USA said if the lower court was inclined to wait to resolve a case involving a lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, it would then be able to “address all potential changes in the NEPA landscape together.”
