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| Dear Friend, |
| We just intervened against an oil industry lawsuit to prevent oil companies from grabbing even more of our public waters for profit. |
| This case will determine how many lease sales the U.S. government will offer to oil and gas companies in the next five years. More lease sales result in more production and development. If we win, we will prevent millions of tons of new CO2 pollution for decades to come. |
| From the plains of the Arctic to the warm waters of the Gulf, Earthjustice is committed to fighting for the natural places we love and stabilizing our planet’s climate for future generations. Your contributions give Earthjustice the power to challenge the fossil fuel industry in court everywhere in the country — and we can’t win without you. |
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| The American Petroleum Institute — the powerful lobby that represents fossil fuel companies — sued the Interior Department to try to force them to maximize fossil fuel development in the Gulf of Mexico in Interior’s Five-Year Program for offshore oil and gas leasing. The Interior Department had originally proposed as many as 11 offshore lease sales, eventually settling on just three new sales, an historically low number. |
| Fossil fuels extracted from public lands and waters already generate over 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, our climate is overtaking 1.5 degrees of warming, the threshold scientists say we must avoid in order to prevent dire planetary impacts. |
| More drilling is untenable if we want a livable future. |
| Oil-and-gas companies are already well-positioned to continue development far into the future. They are in possession of more than 2,000 active leases that cover more than 12 million acres of offshore territory in the Gulf. Yet only about 25% of those active leases have begun producing oil and gas — meaning industry is sitting on about 9 million acres that it still has available to develop far into the future. |
| Furthermore, any argument that the United States needs more oil and gas drilling is absolutely false. U.S. oil production is poised to reach an all-time high of 13.3 million barrels of oil a day, which will likely make the U.S. the No. 1 crude oil producer in the world. On the back of massive new drilling, the U.S. is now a top-five oil exporter, sending our climate-killing crude around the world. |
| For 50 years, Earthjustice has been the legal force behind nearly every major environmental win. With 200 attorneys and hundreds of support staff, we have the expertise and resources to go toe to toe with the oil industry in every corner of the country. |
| We rely on your support to take on every single one of our cases. Please donate today and help us win the legal battles that will determine the future of our planet. |
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Sincerely,
Brettny Hardy
Senior Attorney, Oceans Program
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