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| Dear Friend, |
| Through a process called the federal leasing program, the government auctions off the rights to extract natural resources on publicly owned lands or waters to private companies. |
| The oil and gas industry has over 26 million acres of land under lease. Over half of those acres are sitting unused — stockpiled by the industry and held in reserve, preventing them from being protected or used for other purposes. |
| These fossil fuel leases lock us into decades of dirty energy and climate-heating pollution: 25% of the nation’s total climate emissions come from extracting, transporting, and burning fossil fuels on public land. Oil and gas drilling on public lands results in oil spills and threatens drinking water. Reforming the federal leasing program is crucial to meaningfully address climate change. |
| Earthjustice takes the government to court to account for the damage caused by oil, gas, and coal development and for years has been urging the Bureau of Land Management to reform the federal oil and gas lease program. The Biden administration has finally announced a new rule that increases minimum bonding rates, requiring oil and gas companies to take more responsibility for covering the costs of well clean-up, contamination, and remediation, and making it harder for operators with poor safety track records or a pattern of violations to obtain new leases. |
| This is a long overdue win for communities and the environment. We welcome these reforms to oil and gas leasing rules, which are the first in decades. We still need to do more. It’s time to take a hard look at how our fossil fuel decisions will impact the climate and future generations and pursue bolder climate action. |
| Tell the Biden administration to align fossil-fuel decisions on public lands and waters with our commitments to tackle climate change. |
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Sincerely,
Laura Esquivel
Senior Legislative Representative
Policy and Legislation |
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| Photo Credits: Oil drilling operations in Kern County, Calif. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice) |
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