WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2022) Over 360 climate, tribal, religious and conservation groups appealed to President Joe Biden Wednesday to phase out oil and gas production on public lands and oceans.
"We hereby petition you to use your inherent authority to implement a steady and managed decline of all onshore and offshore oil and gas production on public lands and waters such that oil and gas production is reduced by 98% of current levels by the year 2035 in order to avoid disastrous climate change driven by fossil fuels," the petition said.
Petitioners criticized Biden for offering 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing just days after pledging to slash emissions in the country by up to 51% over the next nine years. Biden is expected to offer leases on more than 300,000 acres of public lands in March.
The coalition's petition offers the Biden administration a framework to oversee the reduction of oil and gas production to near zero by 2035. This can be achieved with rulemaking, as well as using the National Emergencies Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and what the coalition describes as long-dormant provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act. Not taking this move will make it very difficult for the United States to meet its pledge to help avoid 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and the resultant environmental, economic and social carnage caused by climate change, the petition warns.
Biden has broken his campaign promise to cease new oil and gas leasing and drilling on public lands and oceans, the petitioners said. Instead, the administration is approving onshore drilling permits at a pace that exceeds the Trump administration, with more than 3,500 permits approved since Biden assumed office.
Data from the Center for Biological Diversity notes that Federal fossil fuel production causes almost 25% of America's greenhouse gas pollution which is exacerbating climate and extinction crises and is also disproportionately putting black, brown, indigenous and low-wealth communities in harm's way.
