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Groups file lawsuit to force Biden administration to release documents about oil, gas leasing – Daily Montanan

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- April']

Date: 2022-04-22 00:00:00

A group of climate and conservation groups in Montana have filed suit in federal district court to compel the Biden administration to turn over records about its oil and gas leasing plan and how those plans would affect climate change.

The lawsuit seeks documents related to the Biden administration’s position on climate change, and it claims the federal government has violated the public’s right to know by withholding documents it had previously promised.

“President (Joe) Biden’s executive order directed Interior to complete a ‘comprehensive review and reconsideration’ of the federal oil and gas leasing program in light of its significant contributions to the climate crisis,” said Barbara Chillcott, a senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “The people deserve to know why their president, who campaigned on strong climate action, is failing so ‘comprehensively’ to fulfill these promises. Further, we deserve to know if the president is using our climate future as a political bargaining chip.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Montana Environmental Information Center, Wildearth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The White House has repeatedly said that it has been forced to restart the federal gas and oil leasing program after a judge in Louisiana said the Biden administration could not stop or pause the leasing. However, environmental advocates and groups have argued the judge’s order was not as far-reaching so as to order the entire system to resume as it had previously.

The lawsuit filed in Montana centers on public documents, which the groups requested from the Biden administration.

The federal government is regulated by the Freedom of Information Act, often referred to as “FOIA.” The law sets forth what can be accessed by the public, what information remains confidential, and the timeline and procedures for the release of the information. It is different than state law, which governs information from most local, county and state agencies.

The FOIA request includes documents, reports, drafts or outlines that the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have pertaining to the leasing program and climate change, and then documents related to Executive Order 14008, which began the pause on leasing.

In February, attorneys for the group contacted the departments to check on the status of their requests or to get a date by which the request would be completed. A FOIA administrator said that there would be an “interim release of records” by Feb. 17, according to the lawsuit.

No further information has been received by the groups.

“As of the date of this complaint, which is 52 workdays after the 20-workday determination … plaintiffs have received no records and no additional communications from the defendants regarding their FOIA request,” the lawsuit said.

They’re asking the court to order the records release, find that the federal government violated the Freedom of Information Act and pay attorneys’ fees.

“It increasingly seems like this administration is just paying lip service to tackling the climate crisis and prioritizing transparency for federal agencies,” said Anne Hedges with Montana Environmental Information Center. “It’s hard to take them seriously when they continue to hide their reasoning for shirking their commitments to addressing the climate crisis.”

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