New Analysis: Drilling on Public Lands Out of Line with U.S. Climate Goals

WASHINGTON D.C. - With COP27 underway in Egypt, President Biden can stand on a global stage and tout the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, landmark legislation that will lead to the largest investment in U.S. history to fight climate change. Yet this legislation alone is not enough to put the U.S. on track to meet its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. 

With only about seven years left to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, one arena that remains drastically out of step with U.S. climate goals is fossil fuel development on U.S. federal lands. 

A full 90 percent of lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are currently open for oil and gas leasing and being auctioned off to the fossil fuel industry. One current threat on public lands is the Willow Project, a massive new oil-development project in the Western Arctic’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which would further the country's reliance on fossil fuels and spur additional oil and gas development in the region. 

The emissions from current and proposed oil and gas drilling on U.S. public lands – like the climate change they fuel – do not adhere to national borders, impacting communities across the world especially in the Global South, which already bear the brunt of climate-fueled disasters and yet emit the least emissions.  

The Biden administration should use its considerable existing authority under law to take lands off the table for oil and gas development, with an emphasis on preventing new leasing on culturally and ecologically vital lands. The fact that oil and gas leasing is now required before the Department of the Interior can pursue renewable projects means that it is more critical than ever that the administration deftly use its authorities to put public health and safety, climate and conservation first by adopting new regulations ensuring that any new leasing or drilling on public lands proceeds only if and when it is consistent with climate commitments.  

Actions Speak Louder  

Despite the administration’s climate pledge and some positive moves, its actions on public lands do not follow through on the commitments it has made.  

• While President Biden initially paused oil and gas leasing on public lands and ordered the Department of the Interior to conduct a review of the program, the Bureau of Land Management has since resumed leasing and is yet to start a needed rulemaking to address the core problems identified in the review.  

• Although BLM scrapped the Trump 2020 plan for the Western Arctic (NPR-A) and reduced land available for leasing by about 30 percent, the administration continues to back major oil projects there like the Willow Project, which threatens to add more than 280 million metric tons of CO2 to our atmosphere over its projected three-decade lifespan. 

• Meanwhile, the permitting of oil and gas drilling on public lands that have already been leased is largely business as usual and proceeding at levels on par with the Trump administration.      

A recent analysis by Apogee Economics and Policy shows that to be in-line with Biden’s climate goals, BLM must use its authority to take strong action to limit new leasing as well as new drilling on existing leases in the next few years, and – depending on the approval of pending projects on public lands – ramp down production on current leases:   

Base projections by well type based on Prest 2022 high price scenario supplemental results from the perspective of what was under lease/in development as of June 2020. Projections for Willow assume cumulative 629 million barrels of oil recovered over 25 years beginning in 2028. 

The green line on the above chart shows the ramp-down in emissions that would have to occur for the federal fossil-fuel leasing program to be aligned with the U.S. climate pledge. In contrast, the orange and red segments illustrate projected greenhouse-gas emissions over the next seven years if nothing changes. The path we are on leads in the opposite direction of where we need to go. 

“President Biden and his administration have the discretion and responsibility to ensure public lands safeguard the health and safety of communities and support a just economic transition away from fossil fuels,” said Chase Huntley, Vice President of Strategy & Policy at The Wilderness Society. “Oil and gas companies reporting record profits should not be given free rein over public lands while communities suffer from the accelerating impacts of the global climate crisis. Instead, the Interior Department should focus their efforts on conserving and restoring the very lands essential to protecting communities and meeting the administration’s climate and biodiversity pledges.” 

“Time is running short to embrace the changes we know must happen if we are going to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Mike Freeman, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice. “By limiting fossil-fuel leasing and drilling on public lands, we can reduce the climate pollution this activity generates. The Biden administration has an opportunity to demonstrate global leadership by bringing leasing decisions on public lands into compliance with its own climate commitments.” 

Public Lands Can Be a Climate Solution 

Speaking at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, President Joe Biden committed the U.S. to “action, not words” in addressing climate change, and added: “This is the challenge of our collective lifetimes. The existential threat to human existence as we know it. And every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases.” 

The success of this year’s COP27, themed “Together for Implementation”, will be measured by the world’s wealthiest countries stepping up to deliver on their pledged climate commitments. The Biden administration can lead the way by taking public lands off the table for fossil fuel interests and ensure they promote the health and safety of local and global communities, rather than fuel the climate crisis. 

CONTACTS:

• Laura Zachary, Apogee Economics & Policy, (210) 273-1240, laura@apogeeep.com 
• Emily Denny, The Wilderness Society, (202) 240-1788, emily_denny@tws.org
• Rebecca Bowe, Earthjustice, (415) 217-2093, rbowe@earthjustice.org 

The Wilderness Society is the leading conservation organization uniting people to care for America’s wild places. Founded in 1935, and now with more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect 111 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org.