Dear NRDC Activist,

Just six months ago, the Trump administration was in the last throes of its drive to sacrifice some of our greatest natural treasures — including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska — to oil and gas drilling.

Now, President Biden's Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, has announced a long-overdue, comprehensive review of her agency's fossil fuel program, which has taken a devastating toll on the climate, our wildlands and coastal waters, and Indigenous communities for more than a century.

No one is better prepared to break with the nation's shameful fossil fuel past and chart a new course than Secretary Haaland. Not only is she the first Indigenous person to serve as a Cabinet secretary, but Haaland has long been a powerful advocate for climate and conservation — and she has what it takes to chart a path toward ending destructive fossil fuel extraction on our public lands.

But she is up against the full force and fury of the fossil fuel industry and their allies on Capitol Hill who want to keep plundering our natural treasures for profit.

Join me in signing NRDC's petition letting Secretary Haaland know that we stand with her and urge her to take swift, bold steps toward ending all fossil fuel extraction on our public lands and waters.

Now it's up to Secretary Haaland to take two all-important actions: Permanently ban all new fossil fuel leasing on our public lands, and set our nation on the path toward ending all fossil fuel extraction on our public lands and waters as swiftly and equitably as possible.

Winning a permanent ban on new federal fossil fuel leasing would help safeguard some of our most spectacular wild places — like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska's Polar Bear Seas, and Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico — from the threat of destructive exploration, drilling, or spills. It would also help us transition to a 100% clean energy future and prevent climate catastrophe.

So, for the sake of our wildlands and our planet's climate, join me in calling on Secretary Haaland to get our government out of the fossil fuel business as swiftly as possible.

The fate of our public lands and our climate hang in the balance. Together, we can tip that balance toward a more livable planet for all of us. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
Trustee, NRDC