SIERRA CLUB • January 19, 2021
Since January 2017, the Trump administration has sold 4,928 parcels (or more than 9.9 million acres) of public lands to oil and gas companies for development, including more than 5 million acres onshore and more than 4.9 million acres offshore — turbocharging a decades-long policy of opening our cherished public lands and waters to coal, oil, and gas extraction such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the waters of the Gulf South. According to a 2018 scientific analysis from the US Geological Survey, fossil fuel extraction from federal lands produced nearly a quarter of the United States’ total carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 - 2014. President-elect Biden promised that he would “ban new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” He has an opportunity to fulfill the promise.