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Hi,
Climate scientists warned in a new report this week that big countries need to adopt rapid and drastic reductions in carbon emissions to prevent more extreme weather and widespread devastation.1
But here in the U.S., oil companies are still devouring federal lands with drilling -- at a higher rate than when Trump was president.
In his first year, Biden will have authorized more drilling permits on federal lands than Trump did in his first two years in office combined.2 These new permits, combined with new authorizations for Liquefied Natural Gas almost ensure that the United States will not meet the goals we set in the Paris agreement.3
When Biden was on the campaign trail, he said he would end new oil drilling on federal lands.4 He did issue an Executive Order pausing new drilling leases -- but a judge threw it out. Now the Biden administration is on track to approve over 6,000 new oil drilling permits (which are different from leases) on federal lands for companies like ExxonMobil and others.5 That’s more permits than any year since George Bush was president.
For context, Trump never issued more than 4,200 permits in one year.
We can't let Big Oil get what they want and give up on addressing climate change. The new IPCC report makes it clear that we are almost out of time to avoid a catastrophe -- but if we stop things like oil drilling on federal land, we may have a chance.
The president has proven to be responsive to public pressure on oil and the climate crisis, and your voice could make a difference. Together, we need to show the president that Americans want a safe future on our planet, not new oil wells.
Tell Biden: Save our planet, stop drilling on federal land!
Thanks for taking action,
Tal and the team at Demand Progress
Sources:
1. The Guardian, "Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible – IPCC's starkest warning yet," August 9, 2021.
2. Bureau of Land Management, "BLM Oil and Gas Statistics," 2021.
3. NPR, "Biden Promised to End New Drilling On Federal Land, But Approvals Are Up," July 13, 2021.
4. The Washington Post, "Biden vowed to ban new drilling on public lands. It won't be easy," November 19, 2020.
5. NPR, "Biden Promised to End New Drilling On Federal Land, But Approvals Are Up," July 13, 2021.
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