Groups to Obama: Keep It in the Ground, Cancel Fossil Fuel Auction in Santa Fe

 For Immediate Release, April 18, 2016

 SANTA FE, N.M.— Local, regional and national organizations sent a letter to President Obama today calling on him to keep federal fossil fuels in the ground and cancel the Bureau of Land Management’s federal oil and gas auction slated for April 20 in Santa Fe, N.M., owing to concerns over runaway greenhouse gas pollution and the climate crisis. The Bureau will be auctioning more than 2,300 acres of publicly owned oil and gas in Kansas and Oklahoma to private fossil fuel corporations on Wednesday. 

The agency authorized this sale despite the worsening climate crisis; administrative challenges to the auction by the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and others reduced its size from 36,000 to 2,300 acres. 

“Days away from signing the Paris climate agreements, the president says he’s committed to climate leadership,” said Rebecca Sobel, senior climate and energy campaigner for WildEarth Guardians. “But the hypocrisy is stark — we can’t avert climate catastrophe while BLM continues to auction off our public lands for fracking. The time for ‘all of the above’ energy policies are over.” 

“The Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment is a network of groups in the Grants mining district representing communities directly impacted by uranium mining,” said Susan Gordon with the Alliance. “We stand with other groups today to support keeping all dirty fuels in the ground — oil, gas, coal and uranium — and we support a rapid transition to clean, renewable non-nuclear energy.” 

To read the press release and access additional links click here 16.04.18 Press Release