North Dakota on July 8 sued President Joe Biden’s administration over its cancellation of a planned auction of oil and gas leases. Under the Mineral Leasing Act, lease sales must be held at least once a quarter in each state where eligible lands are available. But the lease sale scheduled for March was canceled and a regularly scheduled sale pegged for June was not held. North Dakota officials said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court, that the illegal cancellations appeared to be in response to a Biden executive order that directed the secretary of the Interior to “pause new oil and natural gas leases” provided doing so was consistent with the law. “Ignoring the Executive Orders admonition to act consistent with applicable law, the Federal Defendants’ actions violated several Federal statutes and exceeded their limited scope of discretionary authority,” the 30-page suit states. The impact of the actions was …