According to a press release issued Wednesday by the Center for Biological Diversity, more than 360 climate, tribal, religious, and conservation organizations filed a petition seeking to reduce land and ocean-based oil and gas production by 98% in the United States. The filing outlines a framework for doing so using “long-dormant” provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and the National Emergencies Act.
The petition implores the President and Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) to avoid the “disastrous” effects of fossil-fuel driven climate change and follow through with Biden’s oft-repeated climate objectives, like those iterated most recently at the COP26 summit in November.
The petition warns of the effects of a warmed climate and its alleged “unprecedented social, environmental and economic damage.” Specifically, the petition echoes “scientific consensus” connecting human-driven climate change with exacerbated droughts and the increasing frequency of other extreme weather events.
The petitioners assert that in order to avoid the projected 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, governments must halt the approval of new fossil fuel production and infrastructure and must eliminate existing production and infrastructure in developed fields and mines.
The press release notes that the Biden administration has continued to push offshore drilling faster than the Trump administration did, thus far approving more than 3,500 new permits. It also faults the DOI’s recent review of federal oil and gas programs as “effectively ignor[ing] climate, calling instead for adjustments to royalties, bids and bonding.”
The 85-page petition lays out the text of the proposed regulations, starting with the policy and purpose of “establish[ing] a rate of production of oil and gas that is compatible with maintaining a stable climate below 1.5°C.” The proposed rules also set forth penalties should federal lessees’ produce excess oil and gas and prescribe how much oil newly permitted sites may produce.
