Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Appeal Filed to Prevent U.S. Bureau of Land Management Auction of Public Lands to Oil and Gas Industry
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Billings, MT—WildEarthGuardians today challenged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plans toauction off nearly 20,000 acres of public lands in Montana to the oil and gasindustry, a move that promises to undermine the climate by unleashing millionsof tons of carbon pollution.

“This is climate denial, pure and simple,” said JeremyNichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “Instead of keeping carbon pollution in theground to protect our public lands and our future, the Bureau of LandManagement is opening the floodgates on more fracking and more climatedestruction.”

In an appeal (called a “protest”) filed with the agency,Guardians took aim at the Bureau of Land Management’s refusal to disclose theclimate implications of its plans to auction off 91 oil and gas leases at anauction in Billings on October 18. Theleases are publicly owned, but selling them to industry will give oil and gascompanies the rights to develop them however they want for as long as theywant.

“Make no mistake, leasing our public lands to the oil andgas industry effectively condemns them to become fossil fuel sacrifice zones,”said Nichols. “Ultimately, industrymakes the profit while we lose our lands, our wildlife, our clean air, and moreof climate.”

Today’s appeal comes on the heels of challenges to Bureau ofLand Management oil and gas leasing brought by WildEarth Guardians in everyother western state, including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Delivering the message that it’s time to keepfossil fuels in the ground, Guardians earlier this year also called on theObama Administration to puta halt to new oil and gas leasing.

Since taking office, the Obama Administration has leasedmore than 10 million acres of public lands to the oil and gas industry, much ofit in the western United States. Areport last year found that oil and gas produced form public lands and watersaccounts for 10% of allU.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making leasing a root contributor to globalwarming.

Methane leaks from pipelines, drilling rigs, fracking pumps,tanks, trucks, and other activities are the main sources of greenhouse gasemissions from oil and gas development. Ultimately, oil and gas is processed and burned, creating even moreemissions.

In its proposal to lease in Montana, the Bureau of LandManagement failed to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and to make any effortto address the climate impacts of its decision.

In spite of spite of President Obama’s move to enactpolicies to curtail carbon emissions, his Bureau of Land Management continues tocommit more public lands for fracking. In 2015, more than 800,000acres of public lands in Montana and other western states were leased toindustry.

The Bureau of Land Management is continuing to lease eventhough less than 40% of all leased public lands are actually producing oil andgas (out of the 32,193,369acres of public lands currently under lease in the U.S., only 12,760,700acres are producing).

The leasing proposed by the Bureau of Land Managementinvolves lands in northern Montana near Great Falls and Glasgow, and easternMontana near Billings. Some leases arewithin 60 miles of Glacier National Park. A map showing the location of the parcels can be viewed here >>

A decision on WildEarth Guardians’ appeal will likely beissued on or before October 18, 2016.