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

Denver—A plan today to auction 20,000 acres of public lands in Colorado would open the door for more fracking, more water contamination and air pollution, and more carbon emissions, prompting renewed calls from WildEarth Guardians for the Bureau ofLand Management to reject oil and gas industry demands.

“Our public lands are being handed over to the fracking industry at the expense of our clean water, our climate, and our future,” saidJeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “We’re calling on the Bureau of Land Management to stop doing the bidding of the oil and gas industry and start putting the American public first.”

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management today is scheduled to auction more than 20,000 acres of public lands oil and gas leases in westernColorado and on the Eastern Plains to industry. The leases include lands next to the Colorado River near Palisade and lands on the Eastern Plains that provide vital wildlife habitat.

In November, WildEarthGuardians and other groups filed appeals (also called “protests”)challenging the proposed leasing as illegal under federal law. In spite of the protests, the Bureau of Land Management is plowing ahead to sell the lands to the oil and gas industry.

Oil and gas leasing on public lands is a major contributor to global warming in the United States. Leasing opens the door for oil and gas drilling and fracking, and more fossil fuel burning. Reports indicate 10%of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to oil and gas development from public lands and waters.

In August, WildEarthGuardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility filed suit against theBureau of Land Management for failing to address the climate impacts of oil and gas leasing across 400,000 acres of the American West, including inColorado. Guardians has called on theBureau of Land Management to impose a moratorium on new leasing and prepare a nationwide plan for addressing the climate impacts of public lands oil and gas development.

“The Bureau of Land Management is continuing to throw our climate under the bus on behalf of oil and gas companies,” said Nichols. “With this agency having no interest at all in serving the American public, we have to stand up and do whatever it takes to stop them.”

Today’s lease sale comes as the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to auction off more than 100,000 acres of Colorado public lands for fracking in 2017. In May 2017, the agency is even proposing to sell lands next to Rocky Mountain National Park and along the Colorado River downstream of Granby. A map showing the leases slated to be sold today and in 2017 can be viewed here.

This leasing comes even as less than half of all public lands leased for fracking are actually producing oil and gas in Colorado. According to Bureau of Land Management statistics, only 45% of all public lands leased in the state are actually producing.

Under the Trump Administration, the Bureau of LandManagement is certain to accelerate the sale of oil and gas leases to the oil and gas industry, putting Colorado public lands and the climate at risk. The President-elect has vowed to open up more public lands for fracking and has appointed a climate change denier to head theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency.