BEFORE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND
THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
_____________________________________________________
PETITION TO REDUCE THE RATE OF OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION ON PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS TO NEAR ZERO BY 2035
January 19, 2022
Submitted By
361 CLIMATE, CONSERVATION, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, PUBLIC HEALTH, INDIGENOUS, FAITH-BASED, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
_____________________________________________________
“No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling including offshore.
No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends.”
-President Joe Biden
Biden-Sanders Debate, March 15, 2020
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20500 | The Honorable Deb Haaland Secretary U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20240 |
Dear President Biden and Secretary Haaland,
We hereby petition you to use your inherent authority to implement a steady and managed decline of all onshore and offshore oil and gas production on public lands and waters such that oil and gas production is reduced by 98% of current levels by the year 2035 in order to avoid disastrous climate change driven by fossil fuels.
Decades ago Congress gave the Secretary of the Interior authority to set the “quantity and rate of production” of oil and gas production on public lands under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. Similarly, it gave the President authority, under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, to set the rate of production for oil and gas production on offshore waters. Using these authorities now to reduce the production of oil and gas is absolutely necessary to address the climate crisis and fully aligns with your “whole of government” directive that every federal agency “avoid the most catastrophic impacts of that crisis and to seize the opportunity that tackling climate change presents.”1Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, 86 Fed. Reg. 7,619 (Jan. 27, 2021). These statutory provisions provide you with one of the most powerful tools to address the reckless and profoundly damaging environmental legacy of over 100 years of fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters, and would finally put the public good above the profits of the oil and gas industries.
Implementing this managed decline now is absolutely imperative to finally stem the relentless and ever-increasing production of oil and gas on public lands and waters. Over the past 15 years, production of oil from public lands and waters has inexorably increased 57% to over 937 million barrels per year in 2020 and now accounts for 23% of total oil production in the United States.2Crude Oil Production, Energy Information Administration (June 30, 2021); see also, Office of Natural Resources Revenue (2006 – 2020), https://revenuedata.doi.gov/explore/ (last visited Nov. 29, 2021). Even worse, during the first six months of 2021 alone, the Department of the Interior approved more than 2,100 oil and gas permits to drill, a level of permit approvals not seen since the George W. Bush administration.3Matthew Brown, US drilling approvals increase despite Biden climate pledge, AP (July 12, 2021). If these approvals continue, it will be virtually impossible for the United States to meet its pledge under the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (°C) and avoid catastrophic damages from the climate emergency.
An overwhelming scientific consensus makes clear that limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C requires governments to halt approval of new fossil fuel production and infrastructure and phase out existing fossil fuel production and infrastructure in developed fields and mines. Already developed oil and gas fields and coal mines contain enough carbon to exceed a 1.5°C limit, meaning that extraction in existing fields and mines must be shut down before their reserves are fully depleted. Globally at least 58% of oil reserves and 59% of gas reserves must be kept in the ground in order even to have a 50-50 chance of meeting a 1.5°C limit. Yet, as detailed in the landmark United Nations Production Gap Reports, fossil fuel producers are planning to extract more than double the amount of oil, gas and coal by 2030 than is consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C,4SEI, IISD, ODI, E3G, and UNEP, The Production Gap: The discrepancy between countries’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C (2020). with U.S. oil and gas production projected to increase twice as much as any other country.5Ploy Achakulwisut & Peter Erickson, Trends in fossil fuel extraction: Implications for a shared effort to align global fossil fuel production with climate limits, Stockholm Environment Institute Working Paper (April 2021). Instead of increasing extraction, we must make steep reductions in fossil fuel production between 2020 and 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C. The United States has a moral responsibility to lead the world in a rapid managed decline of fossil fuel production based on its role as the historic, dominant driver of the climate crisis, its capacity for a just transition to clean energy, and existing executive authority to accomplish this phaseout of fossil fuels.6Greg Muttitt & Sivan Kartha, Equity, climate justice and fossil fuel extraction: principles for a managed phase out, 20 Climate Policy 1024 (2020).
Four years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations starkly warned that global emissions were still sharply higher than what is needed to achieve 2030 interim emission reduction targets.7Emissions Gap Report 2019, United Nations Environment Programme at xviii (2019). The UN report concluded that limiting warming to 1.5°C requires countries to strengthen their climate pledges fivefold to cut emissions by at least 7.6% per year through 2030, concluding that the United States “in particular” must ramp up climate action to meet global climate limits under the Paris Agreement. In 2021 the World Meteorological Organization warned that there is roughly a 40% chance of the average global temperature reaching 1.5°C above preindustrial levels within at least one of the next five years. And in August of this year, the UN secretary-general stated the latest IPCC climate report is a “code red for humanity” and that all countries must “end all new fossil fuel exploration and production, and shift fossil-fuel subsidies into renewable energy.”8Secretary-General Calls Latest IPCC Climate Report ‘Code Red for Humanity’, Stressing ‘Irrefutable’ Evidence of Human Influence, United Nations (Aug. 9, 2021), https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sgsm20847.doc.htm
The extreme heat waves, hurricanes and megafires wreaking destruction across the United States, the deadly floods in Europe and Asia, record-breaking droughts across Africa and South America, and devastating fires in Australia and the Amazon rainforest just over the past two years provide more unequivocal proof that time has already run out. The climate emergency is here. Nearly every month of 2021 was the hottest in recorded history for the country. It is clear that the limited policy interventions by the Department of the Interior to address climate change have all been woefully inadequate to address the climate calamity unfolding now.
The extraction and burning of fossil fuels from public lands and waters is one of the main drivers of the climate crisis and continues to cause profound environmental injustice and burdens millions of people with debilitating health impacts. People who suffer from unhealthy levels of air pollution caused by fossil fuels are at risk of premature death, lung cancer, asthma attacks and cardiovascular problems, and face increased risks of stillbirths and developmental delays in children. In the United States, the burning of fossil fuels results in increased particulate matter, ground-level ozone, and smog causing over $820 billion per year in health costs.9The Costs of Inaction: The Economic Burden of Fossil Fuels and Climate Change on Health in the United States, Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health at 5 (2021). While these costs are shared by everyone across the United States, affected communities including children, low-wealth communities, and people of color bear a significantly higher burden.
Fortunately, implementing a managed decline of oil and gas on public lands can be accomplished quickly and effectively. First, the fossil fuel industry has already consented to the Department of the Interior’s use of this authority. Every single onshore lease application form already required each company to abide by the inherent authority of the secretary “to alter or modify…the quantity and rate of production under” any lease. Likewise, for all offshore oil and gas operations, every fossil fuel company has already consented in each signed lease to only produce oil and gas only “at rates consistent with any rule or order issued” by the president.10See Appendix.
Second, the oil and gas industry has shown that it can alter its own rate of production when it wants to, as all it has to do is turn off the valves from producing wells — an exercise that occurs regularly every time a climate-change supercharged hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico. Likewise, when oil and gas demand collapsed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the fossil fuel industry slashed production by 9.7 million barrels per day, the largest decrease in production in history.11OPEC and allies finalize record oil production cut after days of discussion, CNBC (Apr. 12, 2020), https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/12/opec-and-allies-finalize-record-oil-production-cut-after-days-of-discussion.html Likewise, when oil prices fell by over 55% in 2008, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day.12Nelson D. Schwartz and Jad Mouawad, OPEC Says It Will Cut Oil Output, N.Y. Times (Oct. 24, 2008). These examples show that the oil and gas industry can easily adjust its rate of production to protect its profits. And it illustrates that industry could be required to steadily ratchet down its production to protect our climate for the public good and the survival of our planet.
During the 2020 presidential election, then-candidate Joe Biden promised “[n]o more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”13CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate, CNN (Mar. 15, 2020).
To make substantive progress toward the administration’s vision and U.S. goals under the Paris Agreement, the proposed regulation will implement a controlled phasedown of oil and gas production on public lands. Using 2020 as a baseline, beginning in 2022 the total maximum rates of oil and gas production will decrease by 10% annually for 8 years and then 3% annually for each year thereafter. These reductions will apply across the oil and gas sector, gradually decreasing the maximum production rates for every oil and gas lease on public lands until production is reduced 98% by 2035.
Implementing a managed decline of oil and gas production through control of the rate of production represents the most significant action you could take to protect our climate, protect our wildlife, protect frontline communities, and ensure that the planet remains livable for future generations. This managed decline should be taken in conjunction with other critical policy actions, including permanently ending new federal fossil fuel leasing and ending the approval of new fossil fuel infrastructure projects on all lands managed by the Department of the Interior. These efforts should align with a larger set of actions by the Biden administration to tackle the climate crisis, including declaring a climate emergency, reinstating the crude oil export ban, and limiting gas exports to the full extent allowed by the Natural Gas Act.
Accordingly, pursuant to the right to petition provided in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act,14Our organizations and their members are “interested persons” within the meaning of the APA. 5 U.S.C. § 553(e). we hereby petition you, as Secretary of the Interior,15See 43 C.F.R. § 14.2. to promulgate regulations that (1) establish the maximum production rate and phasedown of existing onshore oil and gas wells under Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act and (2) establishes the maximum production rate and phasedown of existing offshore oil and gas wells under Section 107 of the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act.
Additionally, pursuant to Section 5 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the commitments made by the United States under the Paris Agreement and the authority within the National Emergencies Act, we hereby petition you, as the President of the United States, to promulgate an executive order or rule that establish the maximum production rate and phasedown of existing offshore oil and gas wells. For both requests, we petition that any existing regulations under the Mineral Leasing Act, the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act that conflict with the objectives and text of our proposed regulations be rescinded.
Thus, you must take swift and decisive action to implement a managed decline of oil and gas production on public lands and waters. Allowing continued, unchecked extraction of fossil fuels would all but make it impossible to avoid disastrous climate change and to keep global temperature increases well below 1.5°C of warming. We have reached the point that unabated fossil fuel production now presents a clear and present danger to the climate, natural habitats and wildlife across the United States, and is unjustly burdening impacted communities everywhere. With the aforementioned in mind, we respectfully ask that you grant our petition and use your inherent authority to control the rates of oil and gas production in order to save our environment from the disastrous scourge of fossil fuels.
(To read the entire petition click here to download a PDF copy.)
Respectfully submitted,
198 Methods 1st United Methodist Church, Corvallis, OR, Environmental Care Team 350 Butte County 350 Chicago 350 Colorado 350 Conejo / San Fernando Valley 350 Hawaii 350 Humboldt 350 Kishwaukee 350 Marin 350 New Hampshire 350 New Orleans 350 Pensacola 350 Seattle 350 Silicon Valley 350 Tacoma 350 Triangle 7 Directions of Service A Community Voice Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) Alaska's Big Village Network Alianza Americas Allamakee County Protectors - Education Campaign Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc. Animas Valley Institute Anthropocene Alliance Athens County's Future Action Network Austin Climate Coalition Baltimore, MD Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter Veterans For Peace Battle Creek Alliance & Defiance Canyon Raptor Rescue Bay Area-System Change not Climate Change Berks Gas Truth Better Path Coalition Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) Biodiversity for a Livable Climate Black Warrior Riverkeeper Bold Alliance Breathe Project Brian Setzler CPA Firm LLC Bronx Climate Justice North Bronx Jews for Climate Action Bucks Environmental Action CA Businesses for a Livable Climate Cahaba Riverkeeper California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus California Nurses Association Californians for Western Wilderness Canton Residents for a Sustainable, Equitable Future Cape Downwinders Carolina Biodiesel, LLC Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas Catholic Network US Catskill Mountainkeeper Center for Biological Diversity Center For Ecological Living and Learning (CELL) Center for Environmental Health Center for International Environmental Law Central California Environmental Justice Network Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War CERBAT: Center for Environmentally Recycled Building Alternatives Chaco Alliance Christians For The Mountains Church women United in New York State Citizens Climate Lobby, LA West Chapter Citizens for a Healthy Community Citizens' Climate Lobby, Columbia County Chapter Ciudadanos Del Karso Clean Energy Action CLEO Institute Cleveland Owns Climate Action Alliance Climate Action Now Western Mass. ClImate Action Rhode Island – 350 Climate Crisis Policy Climate Defense Project Climate Finance Action Climate First!, Inc. Climate Hawks Vote Climate Justice Alliance Climate Justice Committee Climate Reality Project, New Orleans Chapter ClimateMama Coalition Against Death Alley Coalition Against Pilgrim Pipeline - NJ Coalition for Outreach, Policy and Education Coalition to Protect America's National Parks Common Ground Community Trust Communities for a Better Environment Community Church of New York Community for Sustainable Energy Community Health Concerned Health Professionals of New York Conejo Climate Coalition Conservation Council For Hawaii Cooperative Energy Futures Corvallis Corvallis Interfaith Cottonwood Environmental Law Center Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action DC Environmental Network Divest LA Don't Gas the Meadowlands Coalition Don't Waste Arizona Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition Earth Action, Inc. Earth Day Initiative Earth Ethics, Inc. Earthworks Eco-Eating Eco-Justice Collaborative EcoEquity Elders Climate Action Electrify Corvallis Empower our Future - Colorado End Climate Silence Endangered Habitats League Environmental Action Committee of West Marin Environmental Justice Ministry Extinction Rebellion Boston Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition First Wednesdays San Leandro FLOW (For Love of Water) Food & Water Watch Fossil Free California Frac Sand Sentinel: Project Outreach FrackBusters NY FracTracker Alliance Franciscan Action Network FreshWater Accountability Project Fridays for Future U.S. Friends For Environmental Justice Friends of the Bitterroot Friends of the Earth Fund for Wild Nature Gas Free Seneca George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication Georgia Conservation Voters Global Warming Education Network (GWEN) Global Witness Golden Egg Permaculture Grassroots Coalition Grassroots Environmental Education Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Grays Harbor Audubon Society Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association Great Old Broads for Wilderness Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition Green America Green New Deal Virginia Green Newton Inc Green River Action Network Greenbelt Climate Action Network GreenFaith Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy Heal the Bay HealthyPlanet Heartwood Heirs To Our Oceans High Country Conservation Advocates Hilton Head for Peace Honor the Earth Howling For Wolves Hudson River Sloop Clearwater I-70 Citizens Advisory Group In the Shadow of the Wolf Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition Indigenous Environmental Network Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend Indivisible Ambassadors Indivisible San Jose inNative - Business Management Consulting Inspiration of Sedona Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program Institute Jewish Climate Action Network Interfaith EarthKeepers Interfaith Earthkeepers Eugene/Springfield Oregon International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Justice & Beyond Louisiana Karankawa Kadla Kentucky Conservation Committee Klamath Forest Alliance KyotoUSA L'eau Est La Vie Camp LaPlaca and Associates LLC Let There Be Light International Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution Living Rivers & Colorado Riverkeeper LLCv Long Beach Alliance for Clean Energy Los Padres ForestWatch Louisiana League of Conscious Voters Love Wild Horses® 501c3 Lutherans Restoring Creation Malach Consulting Maryland Ornithological Society Mass Peace Action Massachusetts Forest Watch Media Alliance Michigan Interfaith Power & Light Mid-Missouri Peaceworks Milwaukee Riverkeeper Mission Blue Montana Environmental Information Center Montbello Neighborhood Improvement Association Mountain Progressives Frazier Park CA Movement Rights Movement Training Network Nature Coast Conservation, Inc NC Climate Justice Ndn Bayou Food Forest New Energy Economy New Mexico Climate Justice New Mexico Environmental Law Center NJ State Industrial Union Council North American Climate, Conservation and Environment North Bronx Racial Justice North Carolina Council of Churches North County Earth Action North Range Concerned Citizens Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council NY4WHALES NYC Friends of Clearwater Oasis Earth Occupy Bergen County (New Jersey) Ocean Conservation Research Oceanic Preservation Society Ogeechee Riverkeeper Oil and Gas Action Network Oil Change International Operation HomeCare, Inc. Our Revolution Our Revolution Massachusetts (ORMA) Partnership for Policy Integrity PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick Peak Plastic Foundation Pelican Media People for a Healthy Environment People's Justice Council/Alabama Interfaith Power and Light Peoples Climate Movement - NY Physicians for Social Responsibility Physicians for Social Responsibility Arizona Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania PlasticFreeRestaurants.org Port Arthur Community Action Network Presente.org Preserve Giles County Preserve Montgomery County VA Progressive Democrats of America Project Coyote Protect Our Water AZ Public Citizen Public Lands Project Rachel Carson Council Raptors Are The Solution RATT Pack RE Sources Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Renewable Energy Long Island Resource Renewal Institute Rio Grande International Study Center RootsAction Samuel Lawrence Foundation San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility Sane Energy Project Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council Santa Cruz Climate Action Network Santa Fe Forest Coalition Save Our Illinois Land Save The Colorado SAVE THE FROGS! Save the Pine Bush SD350 Seaside Sustainability.org SEE-LA (Social Eco Education-LA) Seeding Sovereignty Seneca Lake Guardian Sequoia ForestKeeper® Sevier Citizens for Clean Air & Water Inc. Sierra Club Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia SoCal 350 Climate Action Social Justice Commission (Episcopal Diocese of Western MA) Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara Solar Wind Works SOMA Action South Asian Fund For Education Scholarship and Training Inc (SAFEST) South Dakota Chapter of the Sierra Club South Florida Wildlands Association Southwest Native Cultures Spottswoode Winery, Inc. Stand.earth Stop SPOT & Gulflink Sunflower Alliance Sunrise LA Susanne Moser Research & Consulting Syracuse Cultural Workers System Change Not Climate Change Tennessee Riverkeeper Terra Advocati The Climate Mobilization North Jersey The Consoria The Earth Bill Network The Enviro Show The Green House Connection Center The Oakland Institute The People's Justice Council The Quantum Institute The Rewilding Institute The River Project To Nizhoni Ani Transition Sebastopol Tualatin Riverkeepers Turtle Island Restoration Network Unitarian Universalist Association Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community Unite North Metro Denver United for Action United For Clean Energy United University Professions Upper Gila Watershed Alliance Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition Upper West Side Recycling Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment UU Fellowship of Corvallis Climate Action Team V & T Ventures, LLC Vanderbilt dba/ Greenvest Vegan Flag Verdedenver Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance Veterans For Climate Justice Volusia Climate Action Vote Climate Wall of Women Wasatch Clean Air Coalition Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility WATCH, INC Watchdogs of Southeastern PA (WaSEPA) Waterkeeper Alliance WESPAC Foundation, Inc. West 80s Neighborhood Association West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs West Dryden Residents Against the Pipeline Western Environmental Law Center Western Nebraska Resources Council White Rabbit Grove RDNA Wild Nature Institute Wild Watershed WildEarth Guardians Wilderness Workshop Women's Earth and Climate Action Network Women's March Santa Barbara Womxn from the Mountain |