Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. James G. Watt, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. James G. Watt, Atlantic Richfield Company, Intervenor-Defendants

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

The government asks us to set aside a preliminary injunction stopping it from auctioning rights to drill for oil on 488 tracts near Georges Bank, a fishing area in the North Atlantic off the New England Coast. The district court, 560 F.Supp. 561, acting at the request of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Conservation Law Foundation, issued the injunction (after a brief hearing) on March 28, 1983 — sixteen days after the Commonwealth and the Conservation Law Foundation asked for a preliminary injunction and one day before the scheduled oil lease sale was to take…