May, 19 2022, 10:24am EDT
![Western Environmental Law Center](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012626/origin.jpg)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Barbara Chillcott, Western Environmental Law Center, chillcott@westernlaw.org
Ben Tettlebaum, The Wilderness Society, ben_tettlebaum@tws.org
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.
Natasha Léger, Citizens for a Healthy Community, natasha@chc4you.org
Groups petition Interior to use existing, long-dormant authority to rein in oil and gas
Yesterday, a coalition of 30 environmental and community groups petitioned the Department of Interior to use the agency's longstanding authority and responsibility under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to center public lands as a cornerstone of ecological and community resilience in the face of a changing climate.
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, a coalition of 30 environmental and community groups petitioned the Department of Interior to use the agency's longstanding authority and responsibility under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to center public lands as a cornerstone of ecological and community resilience in the face of a changing climate. By adopting the climate and conservation-centered regulations proposed in the petition, Interior would empower federal public lands to serve as one of our country's key climate solutions.
Right now, public lands are, unfortunately, a major climate problem. Fossil fuel extraction from federal public lands is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate and community impacts. Interior's highly permissive approach to oil and gas development of federal public lands and minerals has undercut the Biden administration's ability to deliver on its climate commitments. Oil and gas companies own leases conveying the right to drill 26.6 million acres of federal public lands and minerals. Although nearly 53 percent of those leased acres are non-producing, 96,000 wells have already been drilled and Biden's Interior has approved, without imposing any climate mitigation measures, an industry stockpile of more than 9,000 additional drilling permits. Adding insult to injury, the administration just announced its intent to sell an additional 144,000 acres of oil and gas leases.
The coalition requests that Interior set public lands as the foundation of the nation's efforts to respond to the global climate crisis by immediately initiating a rulemaking to leverage FLPMA's mandate that Interior prevent the "permanent impairment" and "unnecessary or undue degradation" of public lands from oil and gas development. For decades, the agencies have mothballed these critical provisions in favor of promoting a massive expansion of climate-damaging oil and gas production on public lands.
The coalition's recommended regulatory framework would require that Interior and BLM adhere to science-based climate guardrails, already agreed to by the Biden administration, to constrain warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to actively pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In so doing, the petition would provide a vehicle for the administration to further its commitments to reduce emissions, curb the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on federal public lands, and to reach the 30x30 and 50x50 conservation milestones. Climate action specifically focused on the federal public lands and minerals oil and gas program is absolutely necessary to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis.
As we close in on the 50th anniversary of this landmark law, it is time for Interior to fulfill FLPMA's promise by adopting a framework that meets the urgency demanded by the climate crisis and opens new doors for public lands to contribute to a thriving, resilient future.
"The intersecting geopolitical, energy, and climate crises we face demand strong action. Using the power of the environmental laws that require federal land managers to protect public lands for the long term, this administration can open new doors to a thriving, resilient future for all people, with our public lands as a cornerstone of ecological and community resilience," said Barbara Chillcott, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. "We know public lands hold the key to resilience in the face of a warming climate--so why aren't we using the full power of the law to protect them and ourselves?"
"There is no more impactful climate action the administration can take than stopping the ongoing exploitation of public lands by the fossil fuel industry over any other competing use," said Adam Carlesco, staff attorney with Food & Water Watch. "The proposed regulatory changes within this petition are aimed at ensuring that Interior upholds its statutory obligations to preserve these lands for future generations."
"Public lands contribute 4.5 times more carbon to the atmosphere than they sequester, largely due to energy extraction activities, like oil and gas drilling," said Shelley Silbert, executive director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness. "We can mitigate the devastating effects of climate change by putting in place this proposed framework for public land management. If we care about our kids and grandkids, why wouldn't we want to do this?"
"The bedrock laws governing our public lands are intended to conserve these cherished places and their vital resources, not auction them off for private profit," said Ben Tettlebaum, senior staff attorney with The Wilderness Society. "This framework would help fulfill the promise that public lands benefit all of us - current and future generations. It's long past time for Interior to honor our voices - the people and communities who depend on these lands for clean air, clean water, subsistence, recreation, and a climate-resilient future."
"The impacts of public land exploitation are especially devastating for New Mexico's low-income communities and communities of color. The Administration must take concrete action to mitigate these impacts and address our worsening climate conditions. They can start right now by implementing the recommendations in this proposed framework and protecting public lands," said Oriana Sandoval, chief executive officer of the Center for Civic Policy.
"Protecting public lands is an American idea - some call it 'America's best idea','' said Demis Foster, executive director of Conservation Voters New Mexico. "Congress created the tools necessary to undo decades of degradation and ensure that our federal public lands can be used to address the climate crisis, provide equitable access to the outdoors and support a growing outdoor recreation economy, and provide the basis for a future our children can be proud of."
"We must ensure responsible stewardship of our land and resources," said Hannah Burling, president of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico. "Growth must follow the findings of a comprehensive analysis of the climate, environmental, and social impacts of such development."
"By adopting the rules proposed in this petition, Interior will open new doors to usher in an era of sustainable public land use that can mitigate past and present harmful practices, rein in climate change, and create opportunities for disproportionately impacted frontline communities to thrive," said Mara Yarbrough, campaign director of the New Mexico Permian Basin Climate Justice Coalition. "We urge Interior to act within its authority and take definitive climate action by adopting this proposed framework."
"Our public lands are not just resources to be exploited. They are critical to ensuring that life support ecosystems remain intact," said Natasha Leger, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community. "It is time for the Department of Interior's regulations to match the statutory intent of preventing irreparable harm to our environment and ensure the regulatory standards and thresholds necessary to tackle the climate crisis."
"This will further empower President Biden to avoid more climate harm to forests, rivers, wildlife and people from greenhouse gas pollution," said Taylor McKinnon, senior public lands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Climate science makes clear that any new fossil fuel leasing and production is incompatible with avoiding the catastrophes of warming. The Biden administration needs to heed that reality and take urgent, meaningful action now."
"It's time to wind down and ultimately phase out fossil fuel production from public lands," said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director of WildEarth Guardians. "For our climate, we need to end fracking, stop mining coal, and start safeguarding the lands that are vital to this nation."
"This framework will empower Interior to take climate action in line with the public interest and merited for the scale of the crises we face," said Mattea Mrkusic, policy lead at Evergreen Action. "Climate commitments have to be observed in reality, not just in rhetoric."
The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to safeguard the public lands, wildlife, and communities of the American West in the face of a changing climate. We envision a thriving, resilient West, abundant with protected public lands and wildlife, powered by clean energy, and defended by communities rooted in an ethic of conservation.
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US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access
One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
Jul 26, 2024
The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of American citizenship to vote in federal elections. Republicans claim the bill is meant to fix the virtually nonexistent "problem" of noncitizen voter fraud.
However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
slammed the bill as a "xenophobic attack" meant to silence "Black voices, brown voices, LBGTQIA+ voices, [and] young voices."
Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
toldThe New York Times in an article published Friday.
Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
"In 2020, even with the pandemic, we had registered nearly 10,000 Kansans to vote. Now, we haven't been able to register anyone," Davis Hammet, president of the youth voter mobilization group Loud Light, told the Times.
In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
"What we've found is that these measures have a disproportionate impact on voters with disabilities, both Black and white," NAACP Legal Defense Fund senior policy counsel Jared Evans
toldNola.com earlier this week.
"It's clear that their goal is to make it harder to vote, harder for specific communities to vote especially," Evans added. "What they don't realize is that these laws hurt white voters, too."
In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
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"We refuse to accept thousands of Nebraskans having their voting rights stripped away," ACLU of Nebraska legal and policy fellow Jane Seu said in a statement. "We are confident in the constitutionality of these laws, and we are exploring every option to ensure that Nebraskans who have done their time can vote."
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"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
Jul 26, 2024
Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that one campaigner linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
While Manchin has been trying—and failing—to pass fossil fuel-friendly permitting reform legislation for years, Brett Hartl, director of public affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that his "Frankenstein legislation is taken straight from Project 2025, and it's the biggest giveaway in decades to the fossil fuel industry."
Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
"And it mandates oil and gas extraction in our oceans," he continued. "The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate emergency."
"Monday was the hottest day in recorded history," Hartl noted. "It's shocking that as the climate emergency continues to break records around us, the Senate continues to fast-track the fossil fuel expansion that is killing us. This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
However, Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's U.S. manager, warned Thursday that "this bill is yet another dangerous attempt by Sen. Manchin to line the pockets of his fossil fuel donors, sacrificing communities and our climate along the way."
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else," she continued. "It would unleash more drilling on federal lands and waters, unnecessarily rush the review of proposed oil and gas export projects, and lift the Biden administration's pause on new LNG exports."
"We urge Congress to reject this proposal and commit to action that protects frontline communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth added.
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
"We cannot afford to roll back so many of our bedrock environmental and community legal protections and offer a blank check to the oil and gas industry," she stressed. "We need new solutions for permitting if we are going to meet our clean energy potential and address the climate challenge. But this is not it."
"This bill would altogether be a leap backward on climate, health, and justice if passed into law," Adams added. "The Senate should reject it and look toward alternative solutions already being considered."
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Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem.
Jul 26, 2024
Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
"We had nothing to eat," Bahja Muhakar, a Sudenese mother of three, told the Times after she crossed into Chad, following a harrowing six-day journey from Al-Fashir, a major city in Darfur. She said the family often had to live off of one shared pancake per day.
Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
In April, Reutersreported that people in Sudan were eating soil and leaves to survive, and The Washington Postcalled it a nation in "chaos," reporting that World Food Program trucks had been "blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained."
In late June, a coalition of U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments warned that 755,000 people in Sudan faced famine in the coming months.
The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
Some officials including Thomas-Greenfield, who has dubbed the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," have called for the U.N. Security Council to allow aid delivery into the country even in the absence of SAF approval; it's believed that Russia would veto such a measure.
Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
The SAF and Sudanese government figures have cast doubt on international experts' claims about famine in the country.
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