Public Lands & Waters Defense

Friends of the Earth’s Public Lands campaign seeks to halt oil and gas exploitation of our public lands and put the U.S. on the path towards a just transition that protects workers and communities and ends our dependence on fossil fuels.

The extraction and burning of fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for nearly a quarter of U.S. climate emissions. At the very moment when we needed decisive action to protect our wild places and climate for future generations, the Trump Administration held a four year fire sale to turn as much of our public lands over to the oil and gas industry as possible.

Media

News Releases

Groups Sue to Protect Critically Endangered Gulf Rice’s Whale from Oil and Gas Impacts

Four conservation groups filed suit today in U.S. District Court to challenge a government plan that fails to properly protect rare species, including Rice’s whales and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles…

News Releases

Federal Court Finds Massive Gulf of Mexico Offshore Oil Sale Illegal, Ruling in Favor of Gulf and Environmental Groups

Interior violated NEPA and failed to adequately consider the harms that drilling would have on climate change and on the critically endangered Gulf of Mexico Rice’s whale.

News Releases

Lawsuit Challenges Federal Approvals for New Oil, Gas Drilling on California Public Lands

Today’s filing is part of a long series of lawsuits against the BLM for greenlighting more oil and gas activity in California's Kern County.

Victory Stories

Protecting Coastal Communities and Marine Ecosystems

Nearly every Governor, regardless of party affiliation, along the East and West Coast is concerned about expanded offshore oil and gas drilling.

News Releases

Conservationists seek to defend basic federal oil and gas fiscal reforms from industry complaint

Conservation groups filed a formal legal request to intervene in an industry lawsuit and defend the Biden Administration's oil and gas leasing rule, which contains much-needed reforms regarding bondin…

News Releases

Environmental and Gulf Groups Challenge Interior Department’s Outdated Air Quality Regulations for Offshore Drilling

The industry’s harms are extensive, from killing endangered species like the Rice’s whale to degrading the air and water quality of Gulf communities. We hope today’s lawsuit can push federal reg…

Media Archive

Resources

One Bountiful Billionaire Bonanza

The fossil fuel industry is in line for massive giveaways as Congress and the Trump administration put together a budget and tax deal packed with giveaways for giant corporations and the wealthy.

Letter on the Manchin-Barrasso Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024

The Energy and Permitting Reform Act is a climate nightmare more akin to Project 2025 than a supposedly bipartisan compromise.

Biden Climate Ambition letter

We call on Biden to take meaningful action ahead of the UnitedNations Secretary General’s September Climate Ambition Summit.

Transition Minerals and Indigenous Impacts in the US

More than 600,000 Native Americans (about 15% of the Indigenous people in the West) live within approximately 6 miles of an abandoned mine.

Interior Letter on Post-IRA Leasing

President Biden cannot be a climate leader until we begin managing our public lands and waters in a manner consistent with climate science.

Social Cost of Carbon From Federal Oil and Gas Development

Fossil fuel development costs society trillions of dollars in air and water pollution, climate change, public health, and environmental degradation.

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Fighting Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Each year, the fossil fuel industry gets $15 billion from our government to keep itself afloat. We must stop these destructive subsidies.

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Public Lands & Waters Defense