New Congress’ first attack on public lands comes in oil and gas-boosting bill

House Republican leaders lobbed their first attack on public lands right out of the gate in this new Congress. They set up an immediate vote on (and managed to pass) a bill that would ramp up oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters under the guise of promoting energy security. 

The Strategic Production Response Act would tether withdrawals from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy) with new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters. It’s the first of many expected attacks on public lands and attempts to undo climate action in the 118th Congress, and yet another way to give handouts to fossil fuel companies. 

The bill could lead to leasing on up as much as 250 million acres of national public lands and waters—all for a plan whose logic of tethering public lands leasing and Strategic Petroleum Reserve decisions doesn’t hold up. The bill wouldn’t actually increase U.S. energy security or lower energy prices. But putting more lands and waters on the table for drilling will inevitably lead to more wild places destroyed and damaged, and more communities exposed to pollution.  

It’s a disaster for the climate, too. Almost one-quarter of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions already come from fossil fuels extracted on public lands and waters. This bill would make matters even worse, locking us into fossil fuel dependency for decades to come and worsening climate disasters. 

We cannot afford to lease more public lands and waters to big oil companies. Instead, our nation should be transitioning to a renewable energy economy—one that is better for our communities, climate and wildlands.