** Days after climate summit, Interior to hold massive offshore lease sale
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Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Deep water drilling rig used in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: Bureau of Ocean Energy Managementflickr ([link removed])

Days after President Biden urged attendees ([link removed]) at the COP26 U.N. climate conference in Glasgow to "seize the moment" to act on climate change, the Interior Department is planning to hold a lease sale tomorrow offering more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies.

The sale could produce as much as a billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next 50 years, essentially setting off a "carbon bomb ([link removed]) " at the moment when warnings about climate impacts are more dire than ever. Kristen Monsell, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity said ([link removed]) , "It's hard to imagine a more dangerous, hypocritical action in the aftermath of the climate summit. Holding this lease sale will only lead to more harmful oil spills, more toxic climate pollution, and more suffering for communities and wildlife along the Gulf Coast."

Shortly after being sworn into office in January, President Biden followed through on a campaign promise and issued an executive order pausing all new oil and gas leasing. In June,13 states sued the administration and a federal judge ordered lease sales to resume. The Interior Department said ([link removed]) it would comply with the ruling and "continue to exercise the authority and discretion provided under the law to conduct leasing in a manner that takes into account the program's many deficiencies." Monsell with the Center for Biological Diversity argues the administration has not yet exhausted its authority and discretion, saying ([link removed]) it "has more than sufficient authority to choose not to hold the lease sale and to cancel it."

Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau spoke at an event hosted by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago yesterday and reiterated the agency's desire to reform oil and gas leasing programs ([link removed]) . Beaudreau espoused a need to "flip the script" on the use of public lands away from one dominated by oil and gas interests and "align the programs with the realities facing the United States and the world, particularly around climate," in an effort to provide "a fair return" for taxpayers "for a shared resource that they own."

Despite Beaudreau's comments, climate advocates are worried about the impacts of a lease sale in the Gulf that is the size of New Mexico ([link removed]) . "This isn't just hypocritical, it's outright deceitful," said ([link removed]) Jeremy Nichols of WildEarth Guardians. "It truly calls into question whether the Biden administration's climate agenda is nothing but broken promises."
Quick hits


** Could "Smokey Beaver" help fight wildfires?
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OPB ([link removed])


** Risk of earthquakes rising in New Mexico from oil and gas operations
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Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])


** Days after climate summit, Interior to hold massive offshore lease sale
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ABC News ([link removed]) | Newsweek ([link removed])


** Biden signs infrastructure bill, locks in historic investments for clean energy, water projects & parks
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E&E News ([link removed]) | National Parks Traveler ([link removed]) | Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed]) | High Country News ([link removed])


** National Park Service buried its own harassment study
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High Country News ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Indigenous voices behind Bears Ears hope for more say in federal land management
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The Denver Channel ([link removed])


** Interior official offers suggestions for shifting public lands use away from being dominated by oil & gas interests
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S&P Global ([link removed])


** Biden moves to halt oil and gas leasing within 10 miles of New Mexico's Chaco Culture National Historical Park
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CNN ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed]) | Los Alamos Daily Post ([link removed])
Quote of the day
I ultimately found that these beaver-dammed areas experience about three times less burning than the areas that don’t have beavers, so they’re significantly more protected from fire. And when fire does go through them, it’s much, much lower intensity. And sometimes it can’t go through them at all. It’s just too wet to burn.”
—Emily Fairfax ([link removed]) , assistant professor in the Environmental Science and Resource Management Program at California State University Channel Islands
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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For all the wild beauty of @ChacoCultureNHP ([link removed]) 's high-desert landscape, its long winters and short growing seasons create an unlikely place for a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture to flourish. Yet this valley was the center of a thriving culture a thousand years ago.

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