Oil and Gas Leasing on Public Lands and Waters to Resume

WASHINGTON – Today, the Biden Administration’s Department of the Interior appealed the preliminary injunction ruling on the public lands and waters oil and gas leasing pause in order to address climate change, but chose to resume oil and gas leasing in the interim. This follows after Biden originally pledged in his campaign to “ban new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters.”

Nicole Ghio, Senior Fossil Fuels Program Manager at Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement in response:

“It’s encouraging that the Biden Administration is appealing this wrongful decision. However, the President made a promise to ban all new oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters, and the American people expect him to keep it. The climate emergency reality we are facing demands immediate action, not acquiescence.”

Communications contact: Brittany Miller, Press Officer, [email protected]