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Guardians Appeals to Protect Climate, Prevent Public Lands Fracking in Wyoming
Guardians Appeals to Protect Climate, Prevent Public Lands Fracking in Wyoming
Obama Administration Set to Auction 90,000 Acres to Oil and Gas Industry in Defiance of Climate Science
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663 jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Cheyenne, Wyo.—WildEarth Guardians today called on the ObamaAdministration to stop denying climate change and back down from plans to openup nearly 90,000 acres of public lands in Wyoming for fracking.
“The Obama Administration continues to turn its back onclimate science and bend over backward for the fracking industry,” said JeremyNichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “We’re saying enough. If we have any chanceof safeguarding our climate and our future, we have to start keeping our fossilfuels in the ground and it starts on our public lands.”
In an administrative appeal (called a “protest”) filed withthe United States Bureau of Land Management, WildEarth Guardians targeted theagency’s plans to lease 85 publicly owned oil and gas lease parcels located throughout Wyoming. Leasing conveys aright to industry to drill and frack the leases.
The Bureau of Land Management denied that leasing, whicheffectively opens the door for fracking, would have any impact on theclimate. In an analysis, the agency assertedthat climate science is in its “formativephase” and refused to disclose the potential carbon emissions that wouldresult from fracking or to consider any measured to limit greenhouse gases.
The climate denial comes even as reports show that publiclands oil and gas development is responsible for 10% of allU.S. greenhouse gas emissions. What’s more, scientists are increasingly calling for an endto leasing more oil and gas to meet international greenhouse gas reductiontargets.
In a petition filed earlier this year, WildEarth Guardians calledon the Obama Administration to put a halt to new leasing and commit toconducting a comprehensive environmental review of its oil and gas managementprogram.
In spite of this, the Administration is continuing to pressforward, auctioning off hundreds of thousands of acres of America’s publiclands to the oil and gas industry for fracking.
The resistance has spurred hundreds to startprotesting Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auctions across thenation and prompted more aggressive administrative and legal challenges fromWildEarth Guardians and other organizations.
Last month, Guardians appealedBureau of Land Management plans to auction off nearly 14,000 acres ofpublicly owned oil and gas leases in New Mexico and intends to challengeupcoming lease auctions in Colorado, Montana, and Utah.
The proposed leasing in Wyoming comes even asindustry has declined precipitously in the state. In April, the state’s largest natural gasproducer filed for bankruptcy. And according to theBureau of Land Management, less than 40% of all 10.1million acres of publicly owned oil and gas leases are actually inproduction.
“The only reason for the Obama Administrationto be leasing more of our publicly owned oil and gas is to appease the greed ofthe fracking industry,” said Nichols. “With the oil and gas industry in the pits, our climate crisis mounting,and all signs pointing to the need to transition from fossil fuels, it’s timeto put an end to needless leasing.”