Biden the Candidate pledged, “No more drilling on federal lands, period.”
Fossil fuel development on federal lands accounts for almost a quarter of USA greenhouse gas emissions. Yet President Biden has approved thousands of drilling permits and is paving the way for thousands more. (1, 2)
The climate crisis is here and now, not just in distant countries but even in the USA.(3)
Heat waves, wildfires, floods, crop failure and violent storms are with us and increasing. (4)
A group of young climate activists wrote to Interior Secretary Debra Haaland urging her to suspend and reverse Lease Sale 257: (6)
Dear Secretary Haaland,
As young climate activists who traveled to COP26 to fight for our lives, we were shocked to come home and learn that you had initiated the largest lease sale for oil and gas drilling in U.S. history. Less than one week after COP26 where President Biden pledged a return to U.S. climate leadership, you auctioned off 80 million acres offshore in the Gulf of Mexico — more than even Trump proposed — to some of the worst climate and human rights violators of our time including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell.
…
By caving so quickly to the fossil fuel industry without even putting up a fight, we are left feeling once again like we are alone in this crisis — betrayed by the very people who promised to do the right thing and defend us from the storms now breaching our shores and the toxic industries squeezing the last breath of life from our lands. We implore you to please review the relevant statutes and wield the full power of your office to suspend and reverse Lease Sale 257, to correct this historic mistake, and to recommit yourself to protecting the lands and waters you are sworn and duty-bound to protect.
How to explain this contradiction between stated goals and actual behavior? (5)
Will the real Joe Biden please stand up and take a lead against worldwide climate disaster?
References
-Julie Wornan