WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Federal Oil and Gas Public Lands Leasing Program Challenged

Like Coal Last Week, Obama Must Halt Oil and Gas Leasing While Climate and Other Impacts are Finally Studied
Contact: Tim Ream (541) 531-8541 tream@wildearthguardians.org

Additional Contacts:

Aaron Adams – UC Irvine School of Law, Environmental Law Clinic, (650) 248-9321
Suma Peesapati - UC Irvine School of Law, Environmental Law Clinic, (949) 824-8337

WASHINGTON, DC—Environmentalists today formally petitioned the Department of the Interior to produce its first-ever study of climate and other impacts from its public lands oil and gas leasing program, spanning the entire nation.

The move comes on the heels of last week’s State of the Union address which promised, “to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.” The Administration followed up its promise with a pledge to produce a programmatic study of coal’s impacts on taxpayers and the planet. Following that historic “Keep It in the Ground” victory over new federal coal leasing, WildEarth Guardians and the University of California Irvine School of Law Environmental Law Clinic are now formally petitioning the Department of the Interior to stop new leasing of public lands for oil and gas drilling and fracking until the Department has completed a long-overdue study of the program’s climate and other impacts.

“The Administration’s action last week to shut down further federal coal leasing was science-based, visionary, and courageous,” said Tim Ream, Climate and Energy Campaign Director, WildEarth Guardians. “Every bit of the logic behind shutting down new coal leasing applies equally to the federal oil and gas leasing program—let’s shut down oil and gas leasing on public lands this week.”

The federal oil and gas program is responsible for more than 200 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. That’s more than all the annual climate pollution from all of Central America’s 40 million people. Yet despite these staggering greenhouse gas emissions, the government has never studied the climate impacts of the program, as legally required. Treasured landscapes across the U.S. West, places like Colorado’s Pawnee National Grassland, National Forests in Utah’s Uinta Mountains, and the archaeologically rich Chaco Canyon area of the Four Corners Region, in addition to the rural and indigenous communities that populate these areas, are under imminent threat from regional fracking booms.

“Now is the time for the federal government to translate its talk into action ,” said Aaron Adams, principal author and certified law student with the University of California Irvine School of Law’s Environmental Law Clinic. “With today’s filing, we are asking the Department of the Interior to live up to its legal obligation to study the environmental and social impacts of its oil and gas leasing program—this one’s a no brainer.”

Under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, the Department of the Interior is now required to provide a reasoned response to the petition in a timely fashion. Activists note that the President has, as of today, exactly one year left in office, but given the accelerating impacts of climate change, hope for much quicker action. In the meantime, protests of ongoing oil and gas lease auctions at BLM offices around the country, protests that have thus far shut down three oil and gas lease auctions, will continue.

Today’s petition has been under preparation for months and includes calls for study of fracking impacts like air and water pollution and the threat of earthquakes. Impacts from failed reclamation efforts are also raised. The petition can be found here.

Last week’s Secretarial Order halting new coal leasing while a programmatic environmental impact statement is being prepared can be found here.