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Friend,
Have you seen the news? A group of 66 members of Congress has written to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and asked them to cancel plans to lease more land offshore in the Arctic for oil and gas drilling for good.* That's great news, but these dozens of (mostly) Democrats conspicuously forgot to mention that Obama's BOEM plans to lease three times more sites for drilling in the Gulf than in the Arctic. There are lots of reasons to ban drilling in the remote, cold and unpredictable waters of the Arctic. But when we talk about keeping fossil fuels in the ground, we have to talk about all fossil fuels.
You've already signed a comment to Obama's team asking them to ban all offshore drilling in this lease plan. Can you spread the word to your friends and family online? We need to remind this administration, and our friends in Congress, that there's no such thing as a Democratic, Republican, American or foreign climate crisis -- it's called GLOBAL warming for a reason and we need to keep ALL fossil fuels in the ground to fight it.
Thanks,
Drew and the Keep in in the Gulf Crew at Environmental Action.
* Asha Glover, Lawmakers Want BOEM to Remove Arctic Sales From Leasing Program, The Morning Consult, May 3, 2016
PS - You can also forward my email below to friends if you want.
Friend,
President Obama's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) just proposed to sell off 92.2 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling.1 Doing so would unleash a climate catastrophe by tapping the eighth-largest carbon reserve on Earth and increase the chances of another oil spill like the BP Horizon disaster.2
Thanks to a massive public outcry by Environmental Action members and millions of others, Obama already reversed course on plans to drill off the Atlantic Coast, and recently placed a moratorium on new coal mining on public lands.3 We only have until June 7, 2016 to tell BOEM that we want a Keep It In the Ground hat-trick by blocking new oil and gas leases in the Gulf too.
Sign here to tell Obama and his BOEM to Keep it In the GULF too, by halting all new oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf region has been used as a pollution sacrifice zone for decades. From Keystone XL’s southern leg to new oil and gas export facilities, too often the Gulf of Mexico gets the drilling, spilling and pollution of the oil and gas industry. To add insult to injury, companies like BP, Exxon and Shell can often lease public lands like the ones BOEM is proposing to auction in this plan for as little as $2 an acre.4
And with up to 894 million barrels of oil and as much as 3.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on the auction block, you can bet BOEM's lease plan will attract plenty of bidders.5 But leases like this are what led to the 2010 BP Horizon oil spill, which President Obama called the “worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.”6
That's why it's up to us, along with partners across the Gulf region and national allies too, to join together and tell the Obama administration and BOEM that we won't accept ANY sacrifice zones or half measures when it comes to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and protecting our climate. Click here to stop this latest lease of our public waters for private polluter gain and encourage your friends to do the same -- but don't delay, we only have until June 7 to deliver your message!
Thanks,
Drew and the Keep it In the Gulf crew at Environmental Action
1 - BOEM , BOEM Completes Draft Multisale Environmental Impact Statement for Proposed 2017-2022 Gulf of Mexico OCS Oil and Gas Lease Sales, April 21, 2016
2 - Melissa Cronin, Climate activists gear up to protest new oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Grist, March 21, 2016
3 - Robinson Meyer, Obama Abandons Plans to Drill in the Atlantic Ocean, The Atlantic, March 15, 2016
Rebecca Leber, Obama’s coal reforms put the heat on Hillary and Bernie, Grist, January 19, 2016
4 - Rainforest Action network, Public Lands, Private Profits, September 28, 2015
5 - Richard Thompson, Central Gulf oil, gas lease sale set for March, new Orleans Advocate, September 11, 2015
6 - The White House Press Secretary, Remarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill, June 15, 2010
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