Commentary

Friends of the Earth: Bureau of Land Management Postpones Oil and Gas Lease Sale Amid Activist Pressure


WASHINGTON, D.C. –(ENEWSPF)–December 7, 2015.  The Bureau of Land Management announced today the postponement of the December oil and gas lease sale for the Eastern States. The 160 acres in Arkansas and 427 acres in Michigan will be made available at the March 17, 2016 lease sale. A number of climate groups and activists called on the Obama administration last week to cancel the lease sale and were planning to protest at the sale location in Washington, D.C. Over the past two months, similar protests took place at oil and gas lease sales in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Alaska. In anticipation of the protest, the Obama administration also postponed the Utah sale.

Friends of the Earth Climate Campaigner Marissa Knodel issued the following response:

This decision is a testament to the growing movement for keeping fossil fuels in the ground as a benchmark for President Obama’s climate legacy. Every fossil fuel sale highlights the hypocrisy of calling for urgent climate action, while continuing to lease our public lands and waters for extraction. President Obama cannot hide behind the façade of postponement. True climate leadership requires him to cancel all new oil and gas leases. We will return in March, and at every fossil fuel lease sale, to remind him that a safe climate future means keeping fossil fuels in the ground.

Source: www.foe.org

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