House Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that will, if passed, temporarily block all new fossil fuel leases on public lands.
The bill effectively resuscitates one of former President Barack Obama’s biggest goals: ending coal production on land owned by the federal government. The American Public Lands and Waters Climate Solution Act also aims to reach net-zero gas emissions from public lands within two decades.
Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee intend on putting a year-long pause on fossil fuel leases while the Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service craft a plan to ratchet down greenhouse gas emissions.
“By transitioning away from coal, oil, gas extraction and making our public lands and waters pollution-free by 2040, we will add a major contribution to combat climate change, protect our current and future generations from the greatest consequential challenge and threat we face, which is climate change,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona said during a news conference Tuesday.
Greenhouse gas emissions from public lands comprise roughly 18.6% of total U.S. emissions in 2014, a 2018 U.S. Geological Survey found. Activists say emissions from these areas must be addressed.
Coal miners wait for the Make America Great Again rally featuring U.S. President Donald Trump to begin at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia, U.S., Aug. 21, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
“If public lands were their own nation state, they would be the fifth largest emitter in the world,” Chase Huntley, a representative with Wilderness Society, told reporters Tuesday. (RELATED: Obama-Era Judge Slams The Brakes On Trump Order To Open Fed Lands To Coal Mining)
Obama issued a moratorium on new coal leases on public lands in 2016 that President Donald Trump ultimately reversed the next year. A federal court determined that the president’s administration illegally overturned his Democratic predecessor’s moratorium.
Trump campaigned on reviving America’s coal industry to protect jobs and ween the country off foreign sources of fuel. Democrats, meanwhile, are hampering Trump’s progress, saying emissions from coal are worsening climate change. Tuesday’s bill also seeks to slap higher fees on those energy producers that seek to extract fossil fuels from public lands.
The royalty rate would — if the bill is passed, which is unlikely — rise from 12.5% to 18.75%. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management collected a record $1.1 billion in revenue from oil and gas lease sales.
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