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| Dear Friend, |
| When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it opened the door to major, historic investments in clean energy that have the potential to significantly reduce our country’s climate emissions. At the same time, the IRA legislation contained provisions tethering new federal oil and gas leasing to expanding renewable energy, as well as language stating that certain offshore oil and gas lease sales must proceed. This shortchanges some of the bill’s carbon-reducing benefit and would further burden communities — especially in Alaska and the Gulf — already paying the price for ongoing fossil fuel production. |
| More specifically, the IRA states that the Biden administration must hold three specific offshore lease sales before the end of 2023, including two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf communities have already been irreparably harmed by oil and gas drilling on our coasts — we cannot risk inflicting more damage. The good news is we still have legal tools and resources available to prevent and phase out oil and gas development on our public lands and waters. |
| That is why we are writing to you today. The two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico included in the Inflation Reduction Act are facing their first public comment period to determine their environmental impact. Tell the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that our climate and our communities cannot afford more oil and gas drilling in our public waters. BOEM must not bow to industry pressure and lease the entire Gulf of Mexico, especially when companies already have close to 1,900 leases covering more than 10 million acres of the Gulf. |
| Earlier this year, over 750,000 letters — including 33,878 letters from Earthjustice supporters — were sent to the Biden administration asking it to finalize a Five-Year National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Leasing Program (“Five-Year Plan”) with no new offshore leasing. We have raised our voices together to urge the agency to not allow our public waters to be sold to the fossil fuel industry for oil and gas drilling. And we need your help again. |
| We knew passing the Inflation Reduction Act would only be the beginning. We pledged to double down on our fights to stop fossil fuel extraction and development and will not relent when it comes to defending and strengthening environmental protections. New oil and gas leasing on our public lands and waters will directly harm the communities that live nearby, and directly undermine our ability to meet the Biden administration’s climate targets and mitigate the impacts of a changing climate. |
| Going up against the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry will take everything we’ve got. It means using every tool at our disposal to fight back. We cannot hope to meet climate imperatives and achieve a just and equitable transition to clean energy so long as communities are consigned to a fossil future. Join us in our mission by sending a letter to BOEM and speak out against these dangerous lease sales. |
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Sincerely,
Chris Eaton
Senior Attorney
Oceans Program |
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| Photo Credits: A tension-leg oil production platform burns off unrecoverable gas and leaves a plume of smoke in the Gulf of Mexico. (Land By Sea / Getty Images) |
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