June, 10 2021, 03:41pm EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, eriksg@westernlaw.org
Carol Davis, Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, carol.davis@dine-care.org
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, jnichols@wildearthguardians.
Raena Garcia, Friends of the Earth, rgarcia@foe.org
Kate Hudson, Waterkeeper Alliance, khudson@waterkeeper.org
Groups to Biden: Halt New Oil Drilling, Cancel Trump Leases on Public Lands
WASHINGTON
Climate, indigenous and conservation groups today called on the Biden administration to halt new drilling permits and to cancel unlawful Trump-era oil and gas leases on public lands. The letter urges the Interior Department to enact a range of interim actions to protect the climate, public lands, oceans and communities pending completion of the department's climate review of federal fossil fuel programs.
"To show climate leadership and reduce emissions, the U.S. must act now where we have the ability to do so," the letter say. "Given the Secretary of Interior's authority over the federal fossil fuel estate, this is the place to start."
Today's letter cites the new International Energy Agency report showing that, even with reliance on controversial biofuels and unproven carbon capture technologies, new approvals of fossil fuel projects are incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It calls for emergency bonding, halting federal coal leasing and postponing decisions on resource management plans until the administration's climate review is finished.
In January, 574 conservation, Native American, religious and business groups sent the then president-elect text for a proposed executive order to ban new fossil fuel leasing and permitting on federal public lands and waters.
In February the Biden administration issued an executive order pausing oil and gas leasing onshore and offshore pending a climate review of federal fossil fuel programs. In April more than 200 groups filed formal comments with the administration calling for a formal climate review of the federal fossil fuel programs under the National Environmental Policy Act.
In June the Interior Department plans to issue an interim report regarding its comprehensive review, including findings from a March online forum and public comments solicited through April 15.
Today's letter, authored by Western Environmental Law Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Sierra Club, was signed by Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, Citizens for a Healthy Community, Earthworks, Friends of the Earth, Waterkeeper Alliance, San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Western Watersheds Project. Many of the groups' members live on the front lines of fossil fuel pollution and in communities harmed by climate change.
Statements
"We're grateful for President Biden's climate leadership and the commitments that his administration has made," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center. "The sensible recommendations we've provided to the administration today are intended to maximize opportunities for the administration to align the federal fossil fuels programs with the urgency compelled by the climate crisis."
"We are happy there is a pause on federal fossil fuels leasing, but we need to do more now. The damage is all too evident for communities in the four corners region," said Carol David, director of Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment. "Local farmers and traditional practitioners have spoken to us about a heat shield that for years has prohibited regular rainfall in the Shiprock, NM area. We have seen plants struggling to survive and an absence of life in the simplest form --lizards, snakes, ants. The climate has visibly degraded for people who have lived in the shadow of two power plants. We need to do more by reining in our dependence on oil, gas and coal."
"The climate emergency demands bold leadership from the Biden administration," said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The leasing pause and climate review are good first steps, but much more is needed to curb damage from the runaway drilling and fracking that are undermining U.S. climate goals."
"The Western United States is hotter and drier than ever and in severe or extreme prolonged drought," said Natasha Leger, executive director, Citizens for a Healthy Community. "Parts of Colorado and Utah have already warmed more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. It's harming people, communities, and our food supply with water scarcity, wildfires and chaotic weather. The Biden administration needs to stop the federal government's complicity in climate degradation by ending new oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands."
"The vanishing waters of the West have already been put at grave risk by the fracking extraction and climate-driven impacts of oil and gas development on our public lands," said Kate Hudson, western U.S. advocacy coordinator for Waterkeeper Alliance. "We urge the secretary to protect this precious and diminishing resource by withdrawing all lands in close proximity to permanent, seasonal, and intermittent surface waters and wetlands from availability for leasing while DOI conducts its much needed comprehensive programmatic review."
"The climate emergency does not allow for half measures," said Raena Garcia, fossil fuels and lands campaigner with Friends of the Earth. "Biden must uphold his promise to address the nearly 25% of U.S. emissions that come from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels from our public lands and waters. Halting all new drilling, including permitting and issuing leases from Trump's 11th-hour public lands fire sale is a critical step in making good on that promise."
"It's critical that President Biden follow through with his promise of bold climate action and just transition from fossil fuels," said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians. "We need a pause on selling public lands for fracking, but we need to build on this pause and take further action to rein in fossil fuel production and keep our oil, gas, and coal in the ground."
"The First Law of Holes is, 'When you're in one, stop digging,'" said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. "The Biden administration is off to a good start with its goal-setting to help us climb out of the Climate Crisis, and the new focus should be to stop supplying the nation's addiction to fossil fuels from our federal lands and minerals, and to end the Biodiversity Crisis by prioritizing public lands for habitat protections."
Background
Fossil fuel production on public lands causes about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. Peer-reviewed science estimates that a nationwide federal fossil fuel leasing ban would reduce carbon emissions by 280 million tons per year, ranking it among the most ambitious federal climate-policy proposals in recent years.
Oil, gas and coal extraction uses mines, well pads, gas lines, roads and other infrastructure that destroys habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Oil spills and other harms from offshore drilling have done immense damage to ocean wildlife and coastal communities. Fracking and mining also pollute watersheds and waterways that provide drinking water to millions of people.
Federal fossil fuels that have not been leased to the industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential climate pollution; those already leased to industry contain up to 43 billion tons. Pollution from the world's already producing oil and gas fields, if fully developed, would push global warming well past 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Western Watersheds Project is an environmental conservation group working to protect and restore watersheds and wildlife through.
LATEST NEWS
Trump White House Lies About Budget Bill's Tax Cuts as US Public Opposes Giveaway to Rich
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt misleadingly touted tax deductions for overtime and tips—while neglecting to mention the bill's much larger tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.
Jul 03, 2025
As the Republican reconciliation bill barrels toward final passage in Congress, the Trump White House is misrepresenting the measure's tax provisions in an attempt to paint the unpopular legislation as a boon for workers and ordinary seniors rather than a massive handout to the wealthiest Americans.
In an X post late Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared that any lawmaker who opposes the 887-page bill is voting against "no tax on tips," "no tax on overtime," and "no tax on Social Security" benefits.
Leavitt's post was sufficiently misleading as to draw a "community note" on the Elon Musk-owned platform, which clarified that the Republican bill "does not fully eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security as claimed; it offers limited deductions with caps (e.g., $25,000 for tips, $12,500 for overtime) and excludes high earners, with no provision to remove taxes on Social Security."
As Axios reported Thursday, the Republican legislation does include "an increased tax deduction for tax filers age 64 and older," but the benefit "leaves out the poorest seniors" and expires in 2028, when President Donald Trump is set to leave office.
The tax deductions for overtime and tips also expire in 2028.
That's unlike the major tax breaks for the wealthy that are included in the legislation, which extends soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law. For example, the new Republican bill would permanently raise the estate tax exemption, allowing ultrawealthy individuals and married couples to give their heirs up to $15 million or $30 million without paying any federal taxes.
"A married couple worth $30 million where both spouses die in 2026 would pay some $6 million less under the bill compared with current law," The Wall Street Journal observed.
Brendan Duke, senior director for federal budget policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, estimates that the GOP reconciliation bill's tax breaks for the richest 1% are roughly 10 times larger than the tax deductions for tips and overtime combined.
You left something out. https://t.co/LwMFX2nbyM pic.twitter.com/9Dn2FoBZNH
— Brendan Duke (@Brendan_Duke) July 3, 2025
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) noted in a recent analysis that the Senate-passed legislation also "includes permanent corporate tax breaks (involving more generous versions of tax rules for bonus depreciation, research, and limits on interest deductions) that lawmakers have attempted to enact in recent years."
Contrary to the Trump White House's characterization of the reconciliation bill as a historic "middle- and working-class tax cut," ITEP found that "the richest 1% of Americans would receive a total of $117 billion in net tax cuts in 2026."
By contrast, according to ITEP, "the middle 20% of taxpayers on the income scale, a group that has 20 times the number of taxpayers as the richest 1%, would receive less than half that much, $53 billion in net tax cuts that year."
"The effects of President Trump's tariff policies alone offset most of the tax cuts for the bottom 80% of Americans," the group added. "For the bottom 40% of Americans, the tariffs impose a cost that is greater than the tax cuts they would receive under this legislation."
Survey data released Wednesday by Data for Progress shows that the Republican legislation is unpopular with a majority of likely U.S. voters. The new poll, conducted between June 27 and July 1, found that 62% of Americans are either somewhat or very concerned about the bill's "cuts to income taxes on wealthy Americans."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Abrego Garcia’s Attorneys Say He Faced Beatings and ‘Psychological Torture’ in El Salvador Prison
While the prisoners were kneeling, guards allegedly kept watch over them and would physically strike anyone who fell over from exhaustion, allege attorneys representing Abrego Garcia.
Jul 03, 2025
Attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant whom the Trump administration wrongly sent to El Salvador's infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), are alleging that he and other detainees at the site were subjected to physical abuse and psychological torture.
In a court filing published on Wednesday evening, Abrego Garcia's attorneys write that their client "was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture."
The filing describes Abrego Garcia and approximately 20 other inmates "being struck with wooden batons" after arriving at the facility as they were frogmarched to their cell, where guards would subsequently force them to kneel from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am While the prisoners were kneeling, guards allegedly kept watch over them and would physically strike anyone who fell over from exhaustion. The complaint adds that "during this time... Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself."
The complaint alleges officials at the prison would repeatedly threaten to transfer Abrego Garcia to cells that contained gang members who would "tear" him apart. These threats were made more menacing, the attorneys state, because "Abrego Garcia repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention from guards or personnel. Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards on personnel."
During Abrego Garcia's first two weeks at the facility, the attorneys write, he lost approximately 31 pounds.
The Trump administration last month complied with a Supreme Court order to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to United States after it acknowledged months earlier that he had been improperly deported to El Salvador. Upon his return, the United States Department of Justice promptly hit him with human smuggling charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have also accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the gang MS-13, although they have produced no evidence to back up that assertion.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'People Will Suffer, People Will Die': GOP Nears Final Passage of Largest Medicaid Cuts in US History
"The top 1% are salivating over getting an extra $300,000 a year because of this dangerous bill," said one House Democrat. "Billionaires win."
Jul 03, 2025
House Republicans are on the verge of passing legislation that is projected to strip health coverage and food aid from millions of people across the United States, all to pay for tax breaks that will flow disproportionately to a small sliver of rich Americans.
The final vote on the sprawling budget reconciliation package, which narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday, is expected Thursday after hours of jockeying among Republican leaders and holdovers in the GOP's ranks overnight. Republicans finally cleared a procedural hurdle to begin debate on the measure after 3 am ET on Thursday.
"If Republicans are so proud of their Big Bad Betrayal Bill... why did they begin debate at 3:28 am?" asked Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). "Why are they hiding from the American people?"
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) delayed the final vote on the bill with an hours-long—and, as of this writing, still ongoing—speech that featured stories from constituents who are horrified that they will soon lose health coverage or food aid.
"This isn't abstract, taking away healthcare from the American people," said Jeffries. "It's concrete, it's real, it has devastating implications."
Watch Jeffries' remarks live:
The unpopular legislation that set to clear the House Thursday is substantially more expensive than the version the chamber's Republicans approved in May, and it includes roughly $300 billion more in cuts to Medicaid. The bill now heads to the desk of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged not to cut Medicaid.
Analysts estimate that over the next 10 years, roughly 17 million Americans will lose health coverage under the GOP package, both due to the measure's Medicaid cuts and its failure to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
The bill's assault on Medicaid—including its restriction on states' use of provider taxes to fund their programs—is expected to ravage rural hospitals, notwithstanding Republicans' last-ditch attempt to put a Band-Aid on the massive wound they're set to create.
The legislation would also trigger more than $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare due to its multitrillion-dollar addition to the deficit.
One recent study estimated that the bill's healthcare cuts would result in more than 51,000 additional, preventable deaths across the U.S. each year.
"The decision we have been entrusted by the American people to make will have ramifications for millions of our fellow Americans, and indeed for our country, for decades to come," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in floor remarks early Thursday.
"In just a few short hours, some of them on Medicaid will be waking up and turning on the news to find out if what we did here tonight means they're about to lose it," said Boyle. "Some of the people who get their healthcare from the ACA exchanges will be turning on their TV to find out what we've done in these next few minutes, and if they will still be able to have healthcare... The kids who rely on SNAP, the nutrition assistance program, they may not quite understand it, but make no mistake about it—what we are about to do in the next few minutes here will have a profound effect on their lives."
As Ranking Member @HouseBudgetDems, I'm on the House floor right now to lead the fight against Trump's Big Bill for Billionaires.
This bill is an attack on my neighbors — and I'm not going to let Republicans kick 17 million Americans off their health care without a fight. pic.twitter.com/MeBkYKd8f2
— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@CongBoyle) July 3, 2025
The GOP bill proposes $186 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cuts over the next decade, which analysts say will imperil benefits for millions—including many children. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that around 1 million children "would see food assistance to their families cut substantially or terminated" due to the legislation's SNAP cuts, including its expanded work requirements.
The measure's unprecedented cuts to the safety net, as well as clean energy programs, will only partially offset its trillions of dollars in tax cuts. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), more than 70% of the legislation's net tax breaks "would go to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026, only 10% would go to the middle fifth of Americans, and less than 1% would go to the poorest fifth."
"The effects of President Trump's tariff policies alone offset most of the tax cuts for the bottom 80% of Americans," ITEP found. "For the bottom 40% of Americans, the tariffs impose a cost that is greater than the tax cuts they would receive under this legislation."
Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) said in a floor speech early Thursday that "budgets are statements of values," and Republicans "are showing they have none."
"People will suffer, people will die, and it will be the hands of Republicans who vote yes," said Amo. "The top 1% are salivating over getting an extra $300,000 a year because of this dangerous bill. Billionaires win."
Back speaking on the House floor at 3:45am because budgets are a statement of values — with this big, ugly bill Republicans have none.
Americans will suffer. Americans will die. And it will be at the hands of the Republicans who vote yes.
This budget is shameful. I’m a hell no! pic.twitter.com/K5Ri5lGzzs
— Congressman Gabe Amo (@RepGabeAmo) July 3, 2025
Ahead of the bill's final passage, state leaders warned that the cuts pushed by Republican lawmakers could be deeply destructive to their residents and economies.
"Voices across North Carolina are sounding the alarm—our hospitals, healthcare providers, county leaders, state leaders, business leaders, workers, nonprofits, and, most importantly, the people who rely on these essential services and industries every day," North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein wrote in a letter to his state's congressional delegation on Wednesday. "Many North Carolinians are worried about feeding their families, being able to continue seeing their doctor, or keeping their jobs. We are united in our concern that this reconciliation bill would undo decades of bipartisan progress and harm the health, well-being, and economic security of our individuals, families, and communities."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular