Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Stop Trump's attack on Native lands. No drilling in Chaco Canyon

The petition to the Bureau of Land Management reads: "Protect one of our nation's most significant cultural and historical Native sites. Stop fracking across the Greater Chaco Landscape." Add your name:

The Bureau of Land Management is putting up for lease pristine areas in the Greater Chaco Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and ancestral home for the Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo people, threatening ancient tribal sites, posing a significant health and safety risk to communities in the area, and exacerbating the climate crisis.The Trump regime is conspiring once again with the oil and gas industry to destroy our public lands, and if we don't act now, one of our nation's most significant cultural and historical Native sites could be erased. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, who oversees the BLM, is a former oil and gas lobbyist, so it's no surprise that he and others in Trump's pro-fossil fuel administration are quickly pushing the sale of new fracking leases and more fracking wells. We must speak out now to prevent more industrialized fracking from moving forward. Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Protect Native lands. No drilling and fracking in the Greater Chaco Landscape. Click here to sign the petition. The areas in Greater Chaco Landscape contain the threatened ruins of Chaco Canyon – what some have referred to "as close as the U.S. gets to Egypt’s pyramids and Peru’s Machu Picchu" — as well as "the remnants of great houses, kivas, ancient roads and sacred places built a millennium ago by an indigenous people who became proficient in architecture, agriculture, astronomy and the arts."1,2 Today, the Diné or Navajo people, rely on the Chaco Landscape to sustain their livelihoods and traditional practices and modern New Mexican Pueblos, the descendants of Chaco culture, still consider these sites sacred.3 More than 91% of the area around Chaco Canyon has already been leased to the oil and gas industry, yet Sec. Bernhardt and his Big Oil cronies are eager to wipe out the last remaining protected sacred areas with dangerous drilling and fracking techniques. The democratically-led House of Representatives recently passed an amendment to a spending bill that included a one-year moratorium on drilling in the area, yet it's unclear whether the Republican-controlled Senate will include the provision in their version, and BLM continues to approve more fracking in the area.4 That's why pressure on the BLM is so important right now. Activism to stop drilling in the Greater Chaco Landscape works.5 Thanks to local leaders fighting on the ground in New Mexico in 2018 and the more than 178,000 CREDO members who took action, then-Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke canceled a proposed oil and gas lease sale in Chaco Canyon. Now we must speak out again to stop rampant fracking once and for all. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/chaco-drilling-2019?t=9&akid=33332%2E3130208%2EyUKdx- - Josh Nelson, CREDO Action Add your name: References: Elizabeth Miller, "'As close as the US gets to Egypt’s pyramids': how Chaco Canyon is endangered by drilling," The Guardian, Nov. 8, 2017. Richard Moe, "The Treasures of Chaco Canyon Are Threatened by Drilling," The New York Times, Dec. 1, 2017. Sen. Tom Udall, "Udall, Heinrich, Luján Urge Secretary Zinke to Defer All Leases on Land Near Chaco Culture National Historical Park," Sept. 6, 2017. Hannah Grover, "An appropriations bill includes a one-year moratorium on leases near Chaco," Farmington Daily Times, June 26, 2019. Stephanie Lavallato, "Victory: Chaco Canyon saved from fossil fuel drilling," CREDO Mobile, March 7, 2018.

TELL CONGRESS: A DIRTY ENERGY LOBBYIST SHOULDN’T BE TRUSTED WITH PUBLIC LANDS

Urge your senator to reject David Bernhardt

When Ryan Zinke resigned as Secretary of the Interior amid scandal, he walked right into a job at a D.C. lobbying firm. Now another scandal-ridden polluter lobbyist is poised to take his place at the helm.

David Bernhardt, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Interior, has dedicated his career as a lobbyist and government official to fighting for the worst polluters in the country. Since taking the reins as Acting Secretary of the Interior, he has worked overtime to make it easier for the timber and fossil fuel industries to pillage our public lands and oceans for obscene profits.

We need your help to stop Bernhardt. Tell your senators to oppose this dangerous nomination and demand a nominee who will steward our lands, oceans, and wildlife.

Bernhardt’s tenure at Interior during the Bush administration was marred with scandal. In congressional testimony, he swapped independent government analysis with reports funded by the oil industry. He hasn’t changed at all. Just this week, it was reported that he blocked the release of government analysis that found two pesticides to be so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered species, and instead pursued a plan supported by the pesticide industry. Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest run so deep that he carries a notecard to keep track of which former clients he can talk to, and which ones would be ethics violations.

During the government shutdown, he kept our national parks unstaffed even as he diverted resources to approve over 50 offshore drilling permits for a former client. He has launched attacks on the Endangered Species Act, including a shameless attempt to remove federal protections for wolves across the lower 48 states. Worst of all, he marches in lockstep with the administration’s climate denialism, refusing to accept the clear science showing the threat climate change poses to our future.

The fight to stop Bernhardt will come down to just a few key votes in the Senate. Every letter matters — take action and write to your senators today.

More Information:

David Bernhardt as Interior Secretary may be one of the worst things for Arizona - AZ Central

ACT NOW: Block ex-oil lobbyist Bernhardt's appointment as Secretary of the Interior

Stop oily Bernhardt! 

The Senate is poised to vote on former oil lobbyist David Bernhardt’s confirmation as official Interior secretary. His hearing committee is scheduled for next week.

As acting secretary, Bernhardt has shown that he’s more interested in serving the interests of the oil companies that he used to lobby for, like Halliburton, than those of the American people.

He has pushed for oil drilling off America’s coasts and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge … advocated for rolling back the Endangered Species Act … weakened limits on climate-busting methane for oil and gas companies … and supported dismantling our national monuments.

The Interior secretary oversees around one-fifth of this country's total landmass, including all of the oil, natural gas, and coal beneath the ground on federal lands. The secretary also plays a critical role in protecting our oceans and coastal waters. It's a role too important to the future of this country to hand off to a polluter ally like Bernhardt without a fight.

Together we've shown time and time again that public pressure makes an impact — including forcing former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to resign.We must mobilize a massive outcry in opposition to this dangerous nomination.

Take action NOW by urging your senators to vote NO on Bernhardt’s confirmation — and tell them that we won’t stop fighting to protect our public lands, oceans, and wildlife.

Send a message directly to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally. Tell them that you will not stand by and watch a former oil lobbyist gain control of our public lands and waters!

- Rhea Suh, President, NRDC Action Fund

Stop fossil fuel lobbyist Bernhardt’s confirmation to head of the Department of the Interior

It's been two weeks since the Green New Deal resolution officially dropped and I’ve never heard so many people talking about the climate crisis with such ambitious, people-centered plans.

I’m thankful because we need to completely transform how fossil fuel extraction decisions are made.  But, as you can imagine, Trump and the oil and gas industry aren’t going to come along with us.

As we speak, the administration is moving to confirm David Bernhardt to lead the Interior Department — a veteran fossil fuel lobbyist who wants to open protected public lands and waters to drilling and brings new meaning to the conservative tagline “drill, baby, drill”.

Sign here to tell the Senate to block Bernhardt’s Secretary of the Interior approaching confirmation and protect public lands and waters from oil and gas drilling.

Let me tell you about David Bernhardt... He has pushed hard to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. His former firm has actually sued the Interior Department four times before on behalf of a client around water regulation. And, as Deputy Secretary of the Interior, he played an active role in the Trump administration's work to open public lands to fossil fuel and mining interests.

Bernhardt has made a career out of being a glorified errand boy for the oil and gas industry.

The good news is the Senate still has to vote to confirm Bernhardt as the official Secretary of the Interior. And, we’ve teamed up with Daily Kos, Climate Hawks Vote, and CREDO Action — along with millions of people like you to throw a wrench in Trump’s plans.

But, you need to act now.

Add you name to stop Bernhardt’s confirmation as Secretary of the Interior by telling your Senator to vote “no” now.

Since January, there’s been tremendous opposition to Trump’s agenda to allow oil and gas companies to do whatever they want. Because of your help, SAExploration won’t be seismic blasting in the Arctic Refuge this season — an important milestone to protecting the area from oil drilling.

The fight to stop all new fossil fuel expansion needs to continue with you right now to get to the green future we want.

Every voice counts in the effort to stop Bernhardt and outweigh fossil fuel industry dollars, especially now.

Sign the petition to stop David Bernhardt’s confirmation as Secretary of the Interior.

From offshore drilling to the plundering of Bears Ears to attacks on the Endangered Species Act, there are basically no Interior Department issues that don’t raise questions about Bernhardt’s ability to act objectively. It’s time that Congress provided actual checks and balances so that lobbyists like David Bernhardt don’t get away with turning our country into a giant oil field. Sign the petition to the Senate now.

- Vicky Wyatt, Greenpeace USA

More Information:

Trump to nominate ex-energy lobbyist Bernhardt to head Interior - Reuters