( September 10, 2025, 1:15 PM EDT) -- LAKE CHARLES, La. — The American Petroleum Institute (API) has filed a brief in Louisiana federal court in the long and winding litigation over offshore hydraulic fracturing activity under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), arguing that there is no sound basis to uphold memoranda that were issued during the Biden administration that ban federal oil and gas leasing and development on most of the outer continental shelf (OCS). In the months since President Donald J. Trump has taken office, his administration has weighed in on the dispute, arguing that if former President Joseph Biden’s withdrawals of certain areas for offshore hydraulic fracturing are found to be permanent, they exceeded his authority under OCSLA....