Calgary Trump Order Opening Arctic Ocean To Drilling Is 'Unlawful And Invalid,' Judge Rules | HuffPost Latest News - Action.News ABC Action News WestNet-HD Weather Traffic

A federal judge in Alaska has declared that President Donald Trump s executive order allowing offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean is unlawful and invalid, ruling that Trump exceeded his authority .

That means the drilling ban for millions of ocean acres established by former President Barack Obama will remain in effect.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled Friday that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that determines offshore drilling access only allows a president to withdraw lands from consideration by the Interior Department for leasing not to revoke a prior withdrawal. Obama withdrew some 125 million acres in the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic coast from oil leasing in memoranda in 2015 and 2016.

Trumps executive order reversing Obamas action is unlawful, as it exceeded the presidents authority, Gleason wrote.

The wording of President Obamas 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress, the judge said. The ban will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress.

Environmentalists hailed the ruling.

This victory shows that no one, not even Trump, is above the law, Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit contesting Trumps action, said in a statement.

Offshore drilling and the associated threat of devastating oil spills put coastal economies and ways of life at risk while worsening the consequences of climate change, Karpinski said. President Trump wanted to erase all the environmental progress weve made. But we fought back and we won.

Huge victory for our oceans! A federal judge has blocked Trumps attempt to open the Arctic to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. Obamas protections remain in force. We win! https://t.co/B3QJOw9qOR

Ctr4BioDiv Oceans (@EndangeredOcean) March 30, 2019","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Ctr4BioDiv Oceans","author_url":"https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean","cache_age":86400,"description":"Huge victory for our oceans! A federal judge has blocked Trumps attempt to open the Arctic to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. Obamas protections remain in force. 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Huge victory for our oceans! A federal judge has blocked Trumps attempt to open the Arctic to dirty and dangerous offshore drilling. Obamas protections remain in force. We win! https://t.co/B3QJOw9qOR
Ctr4BioDiv Oceans (@EndangeredOcean) March 30, 2019

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Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, filed suit after Trump signed the order reversing Obamas ban in 2017. The American Petroleum Institute and the state of Alaska joined the Trump administration in defending the order.

The ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

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