Category: Climate and Energy

5 Big Misconceptions About President Biden’s Fracking And Drilling Orders

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Climate and Energy

by Mark Schlosberg

President Biden’s early climate actions signal a welcome shift from Trump’s radical, fossil fuel-driven agenda. However, thus far they fall short of what he promised during his campaign and — most importantly — what is needed to avert climate chaos. When it comes to fracking and fossil fuels, confusing and inaccurate reporting on what Biden ordered abounds. 

Biden’s executive orders have been referred to as a “moratorium on oil, gas drilling on federal land,” and “drilling moratorium,” and halt to “far-reaching suspension of new oil and gas development on federal land.” In reality, it is none of these things. Here is a breakdown on what Biden has done, and what he hasn’t done.

Biden Did Not Ban Fracking and Drilling on Federal Lands

Biden promised during the campaign to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands,” but this is not what his executive order does. It merely pauses new leasing of federal lands for oil and gas development for an undetermined period of time, while his administration conducts a review. Following his executive order, Biden’s Interior Department clarified this stating that “the targeted pause does not impact existing operations or permits for valid, existing leases, which are continuing to be reviewed and approved.” During his press conference, Biden also doubled down, stating his opposition to a fracking ban. He said this despite his promise that he’ll listen to science and the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies showing that fracking is dangerous to human health, water, and the climate. 

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Fracking and Drilling Permits are Also Not Temporary Halted

It was also reported that the Interior Department had put a 60 day halt on all drilling and fracking leases and permits through a secretarial order issued on January 20th. This is false. The moratorium only applies to the agency’s civil service staff issuing permits. Permits can still be approved by Biden’s political appointees, and it appears some permits have been issued for existing leases. 

Aside From Keystone, Biden Did Not Block or Delay Any Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

Biden made big news with his day one order blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, an important step and the result of years of organizing by Indigenous leaders and many allied organizations. However, none of his actions do anything to stop or delay any of the other many fracking pipelines, power plants and export facilities which are moving forward across the country. These include the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line 3, both of which are also opposed by powerful Indigenous-led campaigns.

Biden Didn’t Declare a Climate Emergency

In issuing his executive orders, Biden said we face a “profound climate crisis,” and said addressing it was “more necessary and urgent than ever.” Still, he did not declare a climate emergency, which has been a top climate movement demand and would trigger additional powers that would allow Biden to halt oil and gas exports, a critical step to moving off fossil fuels. 

There Remains Plenty of Land That Big Oil and Gas Can Drill and Frack

Despite the actions taken by Biden to temporarily halt leasing of new land for oil and gas production, there is still plenty of additional damage that fossil fuel companies can do utilizing existing leases and permits. As the Department of Interior pointed out in their release the same day, “the oil and gas industry has stockpiled millions of acres of leases on public lands and waters.” The release notes over 13.9 million unused acres leased on federal lands and approximately 7700 permits to drill on federal lands and waters. All of these can continue to be developed under Biden’s orders.

The Department of Interior release noted “a fire sale of public lands and waters,” under the Trump administration, of which 5.6 million acres were purchased. This is a lot of acres, but — it’s worth noting — not that much more than the nearly 5 million acres that were leased for oil and gas under the second term of the Obama-Biden administration. 

Biden has taken some good first steps, but it is going to take much more to undo the damage of not just the Trump administration, but the last several decades of political inaction on climate change. It will take nothing less than a ban on fracking and related infrastructure and a bold plan to build back fossil free that centers a fair and just transition to 100% renewable energy. Urge President Biden to take an unmistakable step with a permanent ban on fracking federal lands.

Our planet can’t wait. Urge Biden to ban fracking on federal lands for good.

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After Industry Disinformation Campaign, Ventura County Forced to Send Oil and Gas Regulations to Ballot in 2022

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Climate and Energy

Ventura, CA — After seemingly running an extensive disinformation campaign and spending close to a million dollars on contracted canvassers, the oil and gas industry succeeded in collecting enough signatures to pause Ventura County’s newly-won oil and gas regulations, and send them to the ballot instead. The Board of Supervisors certified the signatures yesterday, signaling the start of a new battle for the county’s frontline communities and natural resources.

Some Board members echoed the public’s concern over deceitful tactics used during the signature gathering, but it will be up to the District Attorney to investigate reports of false information distributed by the hired signature gatherers of the oil and gas companies.

“Frontline communities are the people who will be hurt most by this pause in protections from oil and gas pollution,” said Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer Tomás Rebecchi in response to the ruling. “The oil and gas industry’s gross misuse of the petition process affirms its willingness to manipulate and deceive to preserve its bottom line. How much longer can we leave our most vulnerable communities to pay for the profits of the oil and gas industry?”

California already has some of the weakest regulations on oil and gas drilling in the country – behind even Texas, another major producer – though Ventura County became one of the only counties in the state to require a 2,500 foot safety buffer zone between schools and oil wells when it updated its General Plan last year. The oil industry is now suing over those updates as well and hopes to overturn them in court.

In the 2022 statewide primary election, voters will decide whether to close a loophole that allows oil and gas companies using antiquated permits to avoid public oversight and modern environmental review to drill or frack new wells. Until then, the loophole will remain open in Ventura County. 

“What the County did last year was close a loophole that allowed some oil companies to skirt modern laws that protect public health, precious water supplies, our public lands, and the environment,” said ForestWatch’s director of advocacy Rebecca August. “The update simply made all new oil development and operations subject to the same rules that other businesses in Ventura County must follow. You can see why the oil industry is fighting it.” 

Most antiquated permits have no limit on the number of wells that can be drilled, no expiration date, and do not stipulate what extraction techniques can be used. To drill or frack new wells under these permits, the oil company pays a $330 application fee and obtains an over-the-counter Zoning Clearance without public notice or environmental review — much like a marriage licence.

“The threat posed by antiquated permits is already well-documented. Oil operators on these permits are responsible for numerous health and safety violations. It was an antiquated permit that led to one of Ventura County’s biggest toxic spills. Oxnard farmers discovered diluent – a toxic additive used to thin out oil sludge – floating in their broccoli crops. The farmers reported the spill. The oil company, protected by an antiquated permit, didn’t report anything until they got caught. And that spill? It still hasn’t been cleaned up.” said Liz Beall, Executive Director of Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG) an environmental watchdog in Ventura County. “Voters are going to have to decide in June of 2022 – should we hold oil companies accountable for poisoning our air, land, and water? Or are we going to let their deep pockets make the rules, and tolerate more of the same?”

Contact: Jessica Gable – [email protected]

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Why is Big Oil Spending Millions to Fight Ventura County Residents?

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Climate and Energy

Ventura is the third or fourth largest oil producing county in California, and it has a long history of environmental injustice. Some of the state’s first oil wells were drilled right here in the 1800s.There are 4,124 active and idle wells located within Ventura County and over one thousand are located within the 2,500 foot legal setback distance from homes, schools and hospitals. More than 8,000 Ventura County residents live within 2,500 feet of an oil well and 60 percent of them are Latinx. My family and our two young children live within a mile of hundreds of oil wells and many of my neighbors live within feet of toxic oil drilling.

Study after study, including two last year from Stanford and Berkeley, show the negative health effects of living even within two miles of an oil well, including asthma, cancer and low birthweight in newborn babies. 5.4 million Californians already live within a mile of at least one oil or gas well. Of that group, 69 percent—3.7 million residents—are people of color.

Years of Organizing for Environmental Justice In Ventura County

In 2017 Food & Water Watch and our local allies at Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG) appealed the county’s approval of new oil wells within 1,600 feet of residents’ homes. This disadvantaged Latino community was already facing some of the highest pollution levels in California from pesticides and fossil fuels. So, the rubber stamping of permits without regard for environmental justice was nothing new here.

This time though, we knew we could delay and make the case that these wells should not be permitted. We knocked on as many doors as we could in the community, telling whoever would listen about the project we were appealing. Many had never heard of it. We collected thousands of petitions, held meetings at the local schools, trained and mentored organizing interns from the communities most affected. Despite our best efforts, we lost our appeal at the Ventura County Planning Commission later that year. But we knew the fight wasn’t over.

Food & Water Watch’s Long Game And Deep Organizing

We knew the Board of Supervisors —  an elected body — would be our next line of appeal. 

We used every tactic to apply pressure to the Board: petitions, phone calls, emails, and media pieces exposing the blatant environmental racism going unchecked with these oil well projects. 

In the summer of 2019, the Board heard our appeal. Dozens of frontline community members, health professionals and lawyers joined us to testify against the new oil wells.  

With a 3-2 vote, the Board of Supervisors denied the project — a first during Ventura’s long history of oil drilling! A few months later the Supervisors granted our second demand and included 2,500 foot buffer zones in the county’s final General Plan update, along with new regulations on flaring, a ban on gas hook-ups in new buildings and a ban on trucking oil fluids. The General Plan narrowly passed final approval on a 3-2 vote in 2020 after years of community organizing. But that wasn’t the only reward for our labor.

At last, the Board of Supervisors closed a big oil loophole that allowed oil companies like Aera (owned by Shell and Exxon Mobil) to use antiquated permits — sometimes more than 60 years old — without any requirement for environmental review on new wells. Once the Board closed the loophole, any new wells drilled under antiquated permits had to follow the modern laws and processes that all other oil companies have to follow when drilling new wells. 

Big Oil Strikes Back In Ventura

The oil industry wasn’t going to let these new regulations pass easily, so they started to buy their way out of trouble. They poured over a million dollars into media buys and the election of oil-friendly politicians to the Board of Supervisors. They outspent us. But we out-organized them.

Food & Water Action Cal PAC, our sister Political Action Committee, helped elect community and environmental champion Carmen Ramirez to the Board of Supervisors in a decisive 56% to 43% victory, despite Big Oil heavily funding her opponent. The industry responded by throwing more money at their problems while trying to undermine the will of the people.

Big Oil filed seven separate lawsuits against the county of Ventura for passing the general plan with new oil regulations including setbacks and then they started a referendum process to undo the antiquated permit loophole closure.

In California, any citizen can challenge the decision of their local governmental bodies by collecting signatures from 10 percent of the local voting population. Big Oil spent over $600,000 on mercenary signature collectors to stand in front of grocery stores during the biggest surge of COVID-19 in our county. They regurgitated false talking points fed to them by the oil industry and put people’s lives at risk by not wearing masks. Designed as an ordinary citizen’s last resort to undo an unpopular decision, the referendum process was never meant as a way for Big Oil to buy its way out of trouble. 

We Won’t Back Down and Neither Should Our Elected Officials

The oil industry’s money bought 40,000 signatures. If the county validates them, the Board will have to give Big Oil back their permit to pollute without oversight or put it before the voters during the next “regular election.” In the meantime, the new regulations have been suspended while the count is verified. Oil companies will definitely be using this window to drill as many new oil wells under the old loophole and continue to pollute without oversight.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors should not be intimidated by Big Oil’s threats of lawsuits, and tactics that put our communities’ lives at risk. They need to investigate the claims of fraudulent information and the carelessness of the oil industry during the signature collecting process. 

If the signatures are verified and if there’s a special election to vote on the oil loopholes, we will be ready to take on this Goliath again with the grassroots power and coalitions we’ve built over the years. They might have the money, but we have the people’s support. The past two years are evidence of just how powerful that can be. 

Tell Ventura County to investigate the dirty tactics Big Oil used to trigger this referendum.

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Dozens of Groups Demand Accountability for C4GT’s Reckless Permit Avoidance

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Climate and Energy

Richmond, VA — Today nearly 30 groups representing over 70,000 citizens across the Commonwealth of Virginia released a letter calling on state officials to stand up to C4GT LLC’s underhanded actions to fast-track a new gas plant into Charles City County, bypassing a key air permit process designed to safeguard the health and air quality of the County’s environmental justice community. Letter signatories collected by the Stop the Abuse of Virginian Energy (SAVE) coalition demand swift action from Governor Northam, Attorney General Herring, and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Director Paylor to investigate the legality of C4GT’s claims of construction in relation to 9VAC5-80-1985, which states:

“A permit granted pursuant to this article shall become invalid if a program of continuous construction or modification is not commenced within 18 months from the date the permit is granted.”

The groups challenge C4GT’s actions as illegitimate, and highlight how DEQ should not have willingly accepted these claims. The company slid in a construction pad on the day their permit was set to expire (December 3rd, 2020), automatically validating their permit for the next 18 months despite any proof of secure funding or gas source. The letter asserts that C4GT’s underhanded actions are not only backward moves for the Commonwealth’s climate and our communities’ health, but are in fact, illegal. 

“Charles City County, an environmental justice community, doesn’t need another dirty gas plant,” said Food & Water Watch Virginia Organizer Jolene Mafnas. “Governor Northam, AG Herring and DEQ Director Paylor should know better than to allow C4GT LLC to ram their plant under the wire of their existing permits especially when this project has had no meaningful public engagement since it was first proposed in 2016. These actions should be illegal and will only serve to add more pollution to our air for the sake of lining the pockets of corporate executives.”

“The Ecological Justice Initiative opposes C4GT’s desperate attempt in extending their nearly expired air permit No. 52588,” says The Ecological Justice Initiative’s Founder, McKenna Dunbar. “Actively abusing the Commonwealth’s regulatory process will not be tolerated. Fossil fuel based infrastructure concentrated in marginalized and low-income communities is shameful and exposes NOVI Energy’s roots in disregarding the input and needs of impacted residents.”

“It’s time to end such game playing by a desperate fossil fuel industry when the environmental stakes are so high,” says SAVE coalition member Lynn Wilson, who lives a few miles from the proposed site.

Contact: Phoebe Galt – 207-400-1275, [email protected]

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As Tampa Clean Energy Resolution Gains Momentum, Some State Legislators Side with Big Oil and Gas

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Climate and Energy

For Immediate Release

Tallahassee, FL — This week, amidst mounting local support for a Tampa City Council resolution designed to move the city off fossil fuels by 2030, Florida state legislators introduced multiple bills to limit municipal power in energy infrastructure regulation. These bills, starting with Senate Bill 856, further entrench corporate oil and gas interests in the state’s energy future, and come in direct response to Tampa’s efforts.

The Tampa resolution is championed by Councilman Citro and supported by over 60 community organizations and businesses in the Tampa Bay Climate Alliance led by Food & Water Watch. The city action comes in response to decades of inaction from the Florida capital on protecting the state from climate change — and it has Big Oil and Gas scared.

In response, Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer Brooke Errett issued the following statement:

“The oil and gas industry are fighting an uphill battle, and they know it. Floridians consistently push back on their plans to drill for oil off our coasts, frack our land, and build out dangerous infrastructure to bolster their profits. Tampa is a leader in the movement for a cleaner, greener future in Florida. Tampa residents and our city council will not back down in this fight that pits our people versus Big Oil and Gas. Mayor Castor, we are ready to fight industry interests together. Let’s take them on.”

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Biden’s Climate Agenda Falls Short on Confronting Fossil Fuels

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Climate and Energy

For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C. – The White House is unveiling a suite of executive actions today that signal a renewed focus on the climate crisis. While many of the moves are encouraging, the plans need to tackle the production of fossil fuels.

Food & Water Watch Policy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement in response:

“To advance serious policies that actually address the climate crisis, the Biden administration must take aim at the source: the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. New investments in clean energy and making environmental justice a priority are necessary measures, but they must be paired with serious plans to stop our deadly addiction to fossil fuels. We need a White House that is committed to stopping all drilling and fracking, and shutting down any schemes to export fossil fuels.

“The White House order also seeks to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. That should include handouts to the fossil fuel industry to promote carbon capture and sequestration, which are industry-backed technologies overwhelmingly used to extract more oil. These greenwashing schemes are not climate solutions, they are lifelines to the industries that have created the climate crisis in the first place.”

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Biden Must Make Public Lands Drilling Pause Permanent

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Climate and Energy

For Immediate Release
 

Washington, D.C. – Tomorrow, the Biden administration is expected to announce a long-awaited executive order that will temporarily pause new drilling and fracking for fossil fuels on publicly-owned lands and waters. Permanently halting new fracking on federal land was one of Biden’s clearest commitments during the presidential campaign.

In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter released the following statement: 

“A pause on drilling and fracking is good news, but only if it is followed by a strong plan to permanently ban all dirty energy extraction on public lands. The simple truth is that we need to stop drilling and fracking everywhere, as soon as possible. The federal government has the power — and the moral responsibility — to get off fossil fuels, and doing so on publicly-owned land sends a positive message that the Biden administration is serious about confronting this issue head-on. Now they must prove it by making this temporary fracking pause permanent and continuing to tackle fossil fuel development and infrastructure everywhere it exists.”

Food & Water Watch in 2011 became the first national organization to call for a national ban on fracking, and in 2013 helped form and lead the national coalition Americans Against Fracking, which championed a ban on fracking on public lands. 

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As Biden Prepares to Issue New Rules for Oil & Gas Drilling on Public Lands, Call for Permanent Ban on Fracking Grows

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Climate and Energy

Washington, D.C. — With the Biden administration expected to issue new rules for fossil fuel extraction on federal lands this Wednesday, environmental, Indigenous, climate and conservation groups from across the country announced today that they have delivered more than two million petitions and public comments to recent administrations calling for a permanent ban on all drilling and fracking on federal lands.

Biden has promised to “ban” new leasing and permitting activities on federal lands. Calls to ban fracking on federal lands began in 2013 and expanded to oppose all new fossil fuel leasing in 2015. Nearly every acre of federal lands leased for oil and gas by the Trump administration is under some form of legal challenge; many have been overturned by courts.  

In December nearly 600 groups representing millions of Americans sent to Biden’s transition team a draft executive order outlining how the next Interior secretary could implement the president’s directive.

Images for media use of past lease sale protests.

Statements from frontline groups fighting federal fossil fuel plans across the country:

“Too many federal lease sales have already sacrificed the Greater Chaco region for short-term profit. Local Navajo communities, through little or no ‘meaningful consultation,’ have consistently borne too much of the environmental and social impacts from federal oil and gas leasing. As a result, Navajo Nation communities in northwestern New Mexico have suffered increased coronavirus morbidity, a methane cloud visible from space, and some of the worst air quality in the U.S. There has to be a balance point: people over money. I welcome an end to federal fossil fuel leasing and the necessary transitions to more sustainable economies for the Navajo Nation,” said Navajo Nation Council Delegate and Chair of the Health, Education and Human Services Committee Daniel Tso.

“The waters of the Gulf of Mexico are being polluted, which is throwing all life out of balance. Rapid expansion by the fossil fuel industry threatens our coastal communities and our ways of living,” said Juan Mancias, Tribal Chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. “The Deepwater Horizon disaster showed the damage even a single spill can do to our waters and the environment — it’s time to end new leases for oil and gas.”

“We need to end Arctic oil drilling, both offshore and on federal lands,” said Dune Lankard, executive director of Native Conservancy in Alaska. “Like many Alaskans who were devastated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, as an original Native inhabitant, commercial and subsistence fisherman, I intimately understand how dirty and dangerous all oil drilling is. Here we are 30+ years later and our fisheries and wildlife has never fully recovered from the Exxon spill. It’s time that we as a human race unite and come together, and take care of our planet, including our communities, wildlife, climate and keep this oil in the ground.”

“For too long, Appalachian Ohio has been a sacrifice zone, making the Ohio River one of the most contaminated bodies of water in the country. The fracking boom in this area has degraded the environment and has threatened the health and safety of its residents with pollution, gas leaks, and explosions, while failing to deliver the economic benefits the industry promised,” said Becca Pollard with Keep Wayne Wild in Ohio. “Halting new fossil fuel leasing on public land, and on the Wayne National Forest, is a major step towards protecting the ecology, air, water, and scenic beauty of the Wayne National Forest, and surrounding communities. An end to fracking on public lands in the watershed and across the country will cause an immediate increase in water, soil, and air quality and the overall health of the streams, forests, and wildlife of the region. We eagerly await additional measures that will end this harmful mineral extraction in the region altogether.”

“The extraction of fossil fuels has had a devastating impact on public lands, destroying and fragmenting wildlife habitats and causing catastrophic declines for species like the greater sage grouse,” said Erik Molvar, Executive Director for Western Watersheds Project from Laramie, Wyoming. “Climate change and direct habitat loss are the twin causes of the current biodiversity crisis, and we should seize the opportunity to make public lands and oasis for native wildlife by keeping fossil fuels in the ground on federal lands and mineral estates.”

“Climate pollution is warming and drying Colorado River to the detriment of people and endangered species alike,” said John Weisheit, conservation director of Living Rivers in Moab, Utah. “A ban on new federal fossil fuel leasing as a critical step towards protecting the river that is the river that is literally the lifeblood of the American Southwest. The Colorado River’s future will turn on our ability to shift to low-carbon, low-water energy systems, so the dangerous policies of the last administration must be changed with urgency and vigor.”

“The North Fork Valley in Southwest Colorado is in the middle of a climate hotspot warming faster than the global average and has been calling for no new oil and gas leasing of our surrounding public lands and watershed for over a decade. 53,000 no-leasing public comments were submitted to the Bureau of Land Management in 2016, and ignored when the BLM approved the Uncompahgre Resource Management Plan in April 2020 to open up 95% of BLM lands and minerals to oil and gas leasing,” said Natasha Léger, executive director at Citizens for a Healthy Community in Paonia, Colorado. “A ban on new fossil fuel leasing and permitting on public lands is critical to our hard fought efforts to preserve vital local ecosystems necessary for a resilient and livable future.” 

“The Obama-Biden ‘all of the above’ energy strategy included leasing over five million acres of public lands for fracking and drilling, and Trump only made things worse,” said Thomas Meyer, national organizing manager at Food & Water Watch. “The American people heard Biden’s commitment to ban fracking on public lands, and they gave him a mandate to act. If President Biden really plans to listen to the science and ‘build back better,’ then banning fracking on public lands should be at the top of his to-do list.” 

“We’re in a climate crisis and can’t afford one more acre of public land being committed to destructive fossil fuel development,” said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “There are already more fossil fuels being developed in the world than can be safely burned. It’s time to stop expanding fossil fuel extraction and begin phasing it out altogether. We’re looking forward to Biden taking this important first step.”

“For years, people across the country have demanded action to halt fossil fuel leasing,” said Nicole Ghio, Friends of the Earth senior fossil fuels program manager. “The Biden administration must keep its promise to end new drilling on public lands and build a just transition that serves workers and communities.”

“It’s critical for President Biden to take swift action to not only end the sale of public lands for fracking, but undo the damage done by the Trump administration,” said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians in New Mexico.“With record legal challenges, the federal oil and gas program is nothing but an injustice, President Biden needs to put public lands to work for people and the climate, not for the fossil fuel industry.”

“The climate math is simple — we’re in a hole, and we need to stop digging,” said Collin Rees, senior campaigner with Oil Change International. “Climate leadership in 2021 means keeping fossil fuels in the ground and investing in an equitable transition for communities and workers. Joe Biden needs to Build Back Fossil Free, and ending oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters would be a very good early step.”

Background

Federal fossil fuel production 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.

Federal fossil fuels that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential climate pollution; those already leased to industry contain up to 43 billion tons. Pollution from already-leased fossil fuels on federal lands, if fully developed, would exhaust the U.S. carbon budget for keeping the world below a 1.5-degrees Celsius temperature increase.

Existing laws give presidents the authority to end new federal fossil fuel leasing. Hundreds of organizations have petitioned the federal government to end new onshore and offshore leasing. Nearly 600 groups have called on President Biden to enact his commitment to “banning new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters.”

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Beyond Keystone and Paris: Biden Must Make Much Bigger Climate Moves

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Climate and Energy

For Immediate Release

President Joe Biden announced that his administration will cancel a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and is re-committing the United States to the international Paris climate agreement.

In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter released the following statement:

“Reversing the Trump administration’s push to build the climate-wrecking Keystone XL pipeline is a good first step, and a huge victory for grassroots organizers who have fought to stop this monstrous proposal. But the Biden administration must go much bigger than stopping one stalled pipeline: There are fossil fuel projects planned across the country, and all of them represent decades of additional climate and air pollution. This administration must make use of all of its executive and legal authorities to stop all forms of dirty energy expansion.

“The Paris climate accords were insufficient six years ago, and they are even more so now. The Biden White House needs to chart a much more aggressive course for dealing with our climate emergency. We need a rapid transition to 100 percent renewable energy and a ban on fracking and all fossil fuel infrastructure projects. The Paris agreement represents market friendly incrementalism, and we need a much more ambitious plan to get the country — and the world — off fossil fuels.” 

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Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

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Climate and Energy

If we are going to have any chance of avoiding the worst of climate change, we need to ban fracking and leave the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground. Our new President Joe Biden has the ability to take an important first step towards a livable future by halting the leasing for new oil and gas drilling on federal lands, something he promised to do during the campaign. Biden should take this action on day one, but that action alone will not be nearly enough. To avert climate chaos, Biden must embrace a vision of moving off fossil fuels completely.

Trump’s Greenlight To Frack Federal Lands Builds On What Obama and Biden Started

Banning new development of oil and gas on federal lands would be significant for the climate and the protection of some of our most treasured historical sites and national parks. Between now and 2050, new drilling on federal lands could produce the carbon equivalent of 1,000 coal fired power plants at a time when we need to be dramatically reducing our carbon emissions. Further, oil and gas production on federal lands is increasingly threatening some of our most iconic national parks and historic sites including Grand Teton, the Everglades, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Chaco Canyon.

Leasing of federal land for oil and gas development has increased under Trump. According to the Wilderness Society Action Fund and the Guardian, his administration has leased 5.4 million acres of public land for oil and gas development — an area the size of New Jersey. Coupled with his gutting of already too weak regulations of the production and transport of oil and gas, Trump’s actions have recklessly increased emissions and pushed us even closer to climate chaos. But while Trump’s actions have escalated oil and gas drilling on federal lands, they in some ways continued a trend started under the Obama-Biden administration.

The Obama-Biden “All Of The Above” Energy Strategy Cannot Continue Under Biden

When Food & Water Watch became the first national organization to call for a complete ban on fracking in 2011, we warned that rather than being a bridge to a clean energy future, fracking was a “bridge to nowhere” that would sidestep “promising and genuinely reliable alternative energy solutions.” At the time, many larger environmental organizations were touting fracked gas as a bridge to a clean energy future and this bridge argument was embraced by Democratic Party leadership. Expanded oil and gas production became a pillar in the Obama-Biden “all of the above energy strategy,” and in 2012, Obama-Biden campaigned for re-election, touting increased domestic oil and gas production.

In response, Food & Water Watch joined with other groups to form a coalition — Americans Against Fracking — aimed at pushing back against expanded fracking. Stopping the leasing of federal lands was a cornerstone of this coalition effort. We submitted over 650,000 comments calling for a ban on fracking on federal lands to the Obama-Biden administration and worked with progressive leaders in Congress to introduce legislation to protect our federal lands and keep fossil fuels in the ground. Still, while the consensus in the environmental community was shifting to recognize that fracking and a livable climate are incompatible, the administration continued to approve new leases and more fracking. In Obama-Biden’s second term, the Department of the Interior approved leases for fossil fuel extraction of nearly 5 million acres, just a bit less than approved by the Trump Administration.

Stopping New Fracking Leases On Public Lands Isn’t Close To Enough

Biden’s embrace during the 2020 campaign for a halt to leasing federal land for oil and gas development is welcome and represents a significant shift in policy. His Interior Secretary appointment of Rep. Deb Haaland, a Native American congressperson who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock and supports a ban on fracking, is a welcome change from the industry-friendly appointees who served under Obama-Biden. But merely stopping new leases on federal lands will not be enough. After all, over 10 million acres of land were leased under Trump and the last term of Obama-Biden alone, making our efforts to move off fossil fuels all the more difficult.

What it will take is a bold vision and leadership to move the country completely off fossil fuels. This means stopping new leasing of federal lands, but it also means reversing the damage that has been done in the last decade since we first raised the call for a national ban on fracking. This means advancing an agenda that stops all new fossil fuel power plants, pipelines, and other infrastructure, banning fracking nationally either through regulation or legislation, halting the buildout of fossil fuel export facilities and petrochemical hubs that are turning fracking byproducts into plastics, and initiating a fair and just transition that starts shutting down existing fossil fuel plants as we build out our renewable energy infrastructure.

Help Us Push Biden To Take This Series Of Steps To Ban Fracking

Biden can start by halting new leasing and fossil fuel projects on day one by executive order. But it’s up to all of us to move him to do more once that is a done deal. Already a number of state and local officials have called on Biden and Congress to advance a national fracking ban and move the country off fossil fuels as a next step in demonstrating broad support and pressuring Congress and the new administration to act.

Join us by asking President Biden to take this historic first step in banning fracking on public lands.

SIGN ON!

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