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Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Georgia 1 of 14 GOP-led states pushing to restore large domestic oil and gas lease

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The average national price of a gallon of gas reached $5.01 this week. | RODNAE Productions/Pexels

The average national price of a gallon of gas reached $5.01 this week. | RODNAE Productions/Pexels

In response to the Biden administration's canceling of the potential to drill for oil in over 1 million acres of Alaska's Cook Inlet and two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led 13 other GOP-led states—Georgia's Attorney General Chris Carr being one of them—in filing a brief against the president.

In filing their brief in the case Friends of the Earth v. Haaland, et al., a case before the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court, the 14 states wrote that the termination of the lease will "only exacerbate" the current energy crisis faced by the U.S.; FOX Business reported this week. They additionally criticized the environmental groups that successfully lobbied the Biden administration to halt domestic oil and gas production, calling it a "green coup."

"The Biden administration has been working hand in glove with these radical environmentalist groups to shut down American energy development," Knudsen told FOX Business. "These groups have made a cottage industry out of weaponizing federal law to cripple responsible domestic energy development, and liberal judges are all too happy to facilitate this green coup." 

Also included in the brief, the attorneys general accused courts of "weaponizing" the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) in order to "bottleneck" domestic energy production.

“America has the capacity to increase production & lower prices but President Biden stands in the way,” Carr wrote in a recent tweet. “On behalf of GA, we’re fighting in court to stop this administration from illegally blocking pipeline construction & refusing to issue oil & gas leases.”

Biden has a history of stifling domestic energy production, pointing to his issuing of an executive order temporarily suspending new oil and gas leases on federal lands during his first week in office in January 2021, Fox Business said.

The current national gas average reached $5.01 per gallon on June 13—a price the American Automobile Association (AAA) said represents "an all-time high never seen since AAA began collecting pricing data in 2000." 

AAA reported that in Georgia, the average is $4.50 per gallon. The state has seen a 12-cent increase in just the last seven days.