Judge rules Trump executive order allowing offshore drilling in Arctic Ocean unlawful

A federal judge in Alaska has ruled an executive order by President Donald Trump allowing offshore oil drilling of tens of millions of acres in the Arctic Ocean is "unlawful and invalid." The ruling on Friday from US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason means a drilling ban for much of the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska will go back into effect. On April 28, 2017, Trump issued an executive order reversing three memoranda and one executive order in 2015 and 2016 by then President Barack Obama withdrawing about 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean from oil leasing. The Obama order also prevented drilling in certain parts of the Atlantic Ocean. That action by the Obama Administration prompted strong criticism from some Alaska politicians and oil companies that wanted to drill there. Ten environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society, filed suit to block Trump's executive order. Defending the order were the Trump administration, the American Petroleum Institute and the state of Alaska. Gleason ruled Friday that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act only allows a president to withdraw lands from consideration by the Interior Department for leasing -- not to revoke a prior withdrawal. She ruled Congress is the only institution that can reverse a president's decision with regard to this matter, saying Trump's executive order "is unlawful, as it exceeded the President's authority." "The wording of President Obama's 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress," Gleason said...MORE

This will sound familiar to those who have been following Trump's actions to modify the boundaries of certain monuments. The Antiquities Act authorizes the President to designate a monument, but future Presidents are not authorized to modify the original designation. Only Congress can do that argue some. The judge in this case makes the same ruling with respec to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

My question is: Why would Congress authorize one President to take action, but at the same time deny any other Presidents the authority to modify such action? That really doesn't make sense to me.