TAKE ACTION: ASK THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT (BLM) NOT TO ELIMINATE PROTECTIONS FOR IMPORTANT ARCTIC WILDLIFE HABITAT!

At more than 22.5 million acres, the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska (NPR-A) is the largest contiguous block of public land in the United States. The Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976 mandated that the BLM manage Alaska's western Arctic and recognized that the reserve contained a number of important values—subsistence, recreational, fish, wildlife, historical, and scenic—that should be conserved through balanced management. This mandate later resulted in the designation of five special areas—Kasegaluk Lagoon, Utukok River Uplands, Peard Bay, Teshekpuk Lake, and Colville River—where most parcels were made “unavailable for leasing.” But now the BLM is asking for comments on whether to open these areas to oil and gas development.

ACT NOW: URGE THE BLM TO KEEP SPECIAL AREAS IN PROTECTED!

The NPR-A is North America’s "duck factory" and is relied upon by millions of migratory birds for habitat, including large concentrations of waterfowl. It includes two caribou herds harvested by more than 40 communities for subsistence; supports grizzly bears, arctic wolves, arctic foxes, and wolverines; and hosts internationally recognized densities of nesting raptors.

In 2013, the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the BLM approved a land management plan for the NPR-A after conducting an extensive public process that spanned more than three years and involved 17 formal public meetings, consultation with Alaska Natives, and deliberations with four cooperating agencies. The final science-based plan met the mandate for balanced management of the NPR-A to protect globally important wildlife habitat while providing certainty for industry by allowing areas for extraction of oil and gas.

Now, the BLM is using a process allowing the public to comment only by hard-copy mailed-in remarks on whether to allow future development in and around special areas.

That's why we are here to help. We will collect your online comments and physically hand-deliver them to the BLM office in Anchorage, Alaska. Please ask the agency to expand opportunities for public comment and to leave the NPR-A's "unavailable for leasing" areas free from development.

- The Pew Charitable Trust

The Trump administration ignoring common sense laws and bowing to industry pressure.

The Bureau of Land Management is trying to delay—and potentially reverse—a rule it finalized last year requiring oil and gas companies to capture natural gas that would otherwise be burned, deliberately vented, or leaked into the air.

This week, alongside a coalition of tribal and environmental groups, we took the Trump administration to court for this reckless and shortsighted decision.

The commonsense rule would protect public and tribal lands, safeguard public health, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and compensate taxpayers for gas that’s taken from public lands.

More specifically, the rule the Trump administration is trying to delay would:

• Cut emissions of methane—a greenhouse gas 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over the short term—by up to 180,000 tons per year. That is the equivalent of taking 950,000 vehicles off the road
• Prevent oil and gas companies from wasting 41 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year through leaks, venting and flaring—enough to supply 740,000 households for a year
• Put millions of dollars that are essentially being burned up by drilling companies back into the public coffers

Knowing all this, the Trump administration is still bending to pressure from polluting industries.

There is simply too much at stake, which is why we’re challenging this dangerous decision in court. The courts continue to be our last line of defense when pushing back against these relentless attacks from the Trump administration. Just last week a federal appeals court blocked a similar delay attempted by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency.

- Earth Justice 

Don't Let Congress Put Oil And Gas Above Your Interests

https://www.facebook.com/473191156175163/videos/725770440917232/

2016 was the hottest year on record—and rising methane emissions are responsible for about a quarter of that increased warming. And in America, oil and gas companies are responsible for more methane pollution than any other industry. Together, we worked to put in place first-ever limits of the dangerous climate pollution that the oil & gas industry is leaking, venting, and flaring on our public and tribal lands. Now, all of that is at risk.

The House has already voted to roll back these standards and block the Bureau of Land Management from issuing similar protections into law in the future without additional congressional action. That will mean more pollution and wasted taxpayer resources. Now, the fight moves on to the Senate.

Any day now the Senate will vote on a rule that would permanently block common sense safeguards on pollution and waste from the oil and gas industry.

TAKE ACTION and tell Senator John McCain: Don't waste our taxpayer resources to protect the interests of the oil and gas industry.

Suite 1150.
Phoenix, Arizona 85016.
Phone: (602) 952-2410.
Fax: (602) 952-8702.

Sign petition: 

https://secure2.edf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&id=2891&page=UserAction&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=edaf_blm-methane_pd_acq&utm_medium=ad&utm_id=1486147810&utm_content=mccainvideo