A Weird Time for the U.S. to Approve the Extraction of Fossil Fuels on Federally-Owned Land

Unfortunately, the folks at Greenpeace are best known for their civil disobedience. I say “unfortunately,” not that I have a problem with refusing to comply with harmful laws, but because the vast majority of what these people do is far more mainstream, as exemplified in the piece below, i.e., circulating a petition to U.S. President Obama, suggesting that he take a stand against the extraction of fossil fuels on public land.

They are correct; this is something he can and should do before he leaves office.  

They write:

Craig: Right now leaders from nearly 200 nations are gathered in Paris to talk about the future of our climate.

Yesterday, President Obama gave a speech where he stated that the threat of climate change “could define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other.” President Obama’s remarks set the stage for bold climate action and leadership from the United States.

But will he follow through? Now more than ever, let’s keep our call to end fossil fuel extraction front and center.

In the last three months, the voices of millions of people — like you and me — drove Shell from the Arctic and urged the Obama Administration to cancel the sale of Arctic oil and gas leases for the next two years and most recently, reject the Keystone XL pipeline project.

We can’t let our hard-fought progress be reversed. Yet just when we’ve been gaining momentum for our climate, the Obama Administration’s Interior Department recently authorized the potential sale of 10.2 billion tons of coal under public lands.¹

If we hope to prevent catastrophic climate change, we must raise our voices louder than ever to secure a future powered by clean, safe, renewable energy.

Call on President Obama to fulfill  and cement his climate legacy by using his authority to stop new sales of our publicly owned coal and other fossil fuels — before he leaves office.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face in our time. We can no longer afford to let the fossil fuel industry dictate the decisions of our government.