Congressional Progressive Caucus Members Urge Biden to Cancel Federal Fossil Fuel Leasing Plans

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) sent a letter to President Biden today urging him to ban new federal fossil fuel lease sales on the nation's public lands and waters in light of the climate emergency, and to cancel the onshore leases that were offered and sold at the end of June. The letter was led by CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

The Biden Administration last month offered oil and gas leases across 128,300 acres of our public lands across seven states. The Administration also released a new proposed five-year plan for more offshore leasing, which allows for new leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

Many of the onshore leases sold in June fall under Fort Laramie treaty territory. While the United States has a trust responsibility and is required under law to consult with tribes, the Administration did not do the due diligence to ensure this occurred.

All new federal fossil fuel production is incompatible with international goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.

Importantly, despite fossil fuel industry talking points, the letter notes that new leasing will not offer relief to the public at the gas pump. Gas prices are set on the global market, new infrastructure takes years to build, and prices are spiking in part due to profiteering and price gouging by oil and gas companies.

The CPC's letter follows its March release of its executive action recommendations, that includes an ask to end federal fossil fuel leasing. The CPC worked in partnership with the Build Back Fossil Free coalition on its letter; the Coalition represents over 1,000 grassroots and national organizations and millions of people dedicated to ending the fossil fuel era and launching a just transition to a renewable energy future. The Coalition has long urged the President to use his executive authority to stop approving fossil fuel projects, including new fossil fuel leases, and declare a climate emergency.

The Build Back Fossil Free Coalition applauds the CPC's climate leadership, and demands the Biden Administration cancel onshore leases and issue a final five-year plan with no new offshore leases.

Quotes:

"In the face of intensifying climate change and the extremist Supreme Court's ongoing campaign to hand the country over to corporate polluters, we need immediate, decisive, and aggressive climate leadership from the White House," said Congresswoman Tlaib. "President Biden and Secretary Haaland still have the tools to uphold their commitments to monumental climate action, and that can start right now with banning new fossil fuel leasing, invalidating recent sales, canceling upcoming sales, and issuing a five-year plan with no new offshore leases. Nothing less than a livable planet is on the line, and now is the time to deliver on our promises."

"We cannot continue to rely on fossil fuels when our planet is already experiencing the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, from wildfires to hurricanes and floods. Our marginalized communities will continue to pay the heaviest price for our inaction," said Congresswoman Jayapal. "Today, we urge President Biden and Secretary Haaland to uphold their commitment to bold, transformative action and ban new fossil fuel leases on public lands and waters, cancel any upcoming onshore lease sales, and finally begin the process of phasing out these polluting sources of energy for clean energy."

"The United States government has a trust responsibility to Indigenous tribes and to protect our public resources, not use them to expedite climate change threatening the life, and future for us all. When Biden took office he came out strongly on the side of environmental justice canceling KXL and offshore leasing. However he has since caved to pressure from the GOP who's main objective has been to continue to rape and pillage Earth Mother especially threatening Indigenous homelands, water ways and BIPOC communities. This is not acceptable. We call on Biden to gather his courage and stand for true justice and protect our lands, waters, and protect our communities and think of the next seven generations. No new leases onshore or offshore. We don't have time to gamble with our future." - Joye Braun, National Pipelines Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network, Cheyenne River Sioux

"The oil and gas industry has already extracted so much profit from the Gulf South while leaving us with pollution that hasn't been cleaned up," said Colette Pichon Battle, Vision & Initiatives Partner of Taproot Earth. "At the beginning of this year, the industry had more than 9,000 unused permits to drill on public lands. They already have so much. The people in the Gulf South want a future built around justly sourced renewable energy."

Background:

Fossil fuel production on public lands causes about a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas pollution.

Several analyses show climate pollution from the world's already-prdoucing oil, gas and coal fields, if fully developed, will push warming past 1.5 degrees Celsius. Avoiding such warming requires ending new investment in fossil fuel projects and phasing out production to keep as much as 40% of already-developed fields in the ground. Simply put, new fossil fuel leasing is incompatible with a sustainable climate.

A federal fossil fuel leasing ban would reduce carbon emissions by 280 million tons per year according to peer-reviewed science, ranking it among the most ambitious federal climate policy proposals in recent years.

The President has the authority under existing laws to prohibit new federal fossil fuel leasing and cancel existing leases.