New Report Highlights Need for Action to Rein in Climate Emissions and Curb Species Extinctions

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently released recommendations for addressing significant deficiencies in federal oil and gas leasing programs.  The report, which published on Nov. 26, recommends reforms to ensure programs “provide a  fair return to taxpayers, discourage speculation, hold operators responsible for remediation, and more fully include communities and Tribal, state, and local governments in decision-making.” Conservation groups, including Defenders of Wildlife, believe that more action is needed to preserve our nation’s biodiversity and limit our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels. 

“Defenders of Wildlife welcomes the recommendations for long-overdue improvements designed to end damaging speculation and improve returns to taxpayers,” said Monica Goldberg, vice president of Landscape Conservation for Defenders of Wildlife. “Few people realize that the federal oil and gas leasing program is a major contributor to climate change, which is driving wildlife to extinction from the Arctic to the desert. We look forward to working with Interior to develop more aggressive efforts to stem the worst effects of climate change and protect our communities and wildlife. “

Federal lands are key to helping the U.S. address the extinction crisis. Comprising nearly one-third of the nation’s land base, federal lands provide habitat to at least 91% (1,473) of all species listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act. 

While federal lands provide habitat for thousands of imperiled species across hundreds of ecosystems, fragile and important ecosystems on these lands are places of current or potential fossil fuel operations. It is widely known that fossil fuels are a major contributor to the extinction crisis and our federal lands account for nearly one-quarter of CO2 emissions.  

However, DOI’s report does not recommend a pathway to phase out oil and gas drilling from federal lands or otherwise address the federal oil and gas programs’ contribution to climate change or the extinction crisis. This breaks President Biden’s campaign promise to ban new oil and gas leasing on public lands.

“Climate change is endangering communities and wildlife, and disproportionately harming the most vulnerable,” stated Dr. Jacob Malcom, director of Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation. “Arctic wildlife such as polar bears, ringed seals and Pacific walrus are just a few of the species that won’t survive without transformative change.” 

Phasing out fossil fuel extraction from federal lands in these and similar places would protect habitats already impacted by climate change from further destruction from energy development. 

Safeguarding the Arctic’s wildlife needs to be a top priority for the Interior Department. The Arctic is warming at twice the global average. The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska is the largest single tract of public land in the United States and is home to imperiled species such as polar bears, spectacled and Steller’s eiders, and ringed and bearded seals. Over 2.5 million acres already leased to oil and gas companies in the reserve, most of which is not yet developed. With an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil, the reserve is also one of the biggest threats to the administration’s goal to curb emissions from fossil fuel development on federal lands and safeguard our nation’s wildlife. 

“Expanding drilling in the Arctic, especially in polar bear habitat, is inconsistent with conserving biodiversity and addressing climate change,” said Patrick Lavin, Alaska policy advisor with Defenders of Wildlife. “The federal government needs to ramp fossil fuel investments down, not up, and give polar bears and other wildlife a chance.”

 Conserving the wildlife of the sagebrush sea, the interior West’s expanses of sagebrush steppe and grasslands requires bold action.  The sagebrush sea is home to an incredible array of wildlife, some that live nowhere else and depend entirely on this habitat for survival. The greater sage-grouse, for example, has declined nearly 40% since 2002 in part because oil, gas, and coal development has transformed parts of its habitat, especially in Colorado and Wyoming.  

“Oil and gas drilling in the sagebrush sea deals a double blow to at-risk wildlife like the greater sage-grouse,’’ said Vera Smith, senior Federal Lands policy analyst, Defenders of Wildlife. “Fossil fuel development transforms sagebrush habitats into industrial zones while the downstream emissions contribute to climate change which further stresses out the critters.”

Our country is at a pivotal time to take action to limit our reliance on fossil fuels if we are to avoid the worst impacts from climate change. Defenders recognizes that careful consideration of how our nation achieves this zero-carbon future is vital for protecting our nation’s internationally treasured wildlife such as the Sierra Nevada red fox and Karner Blue butterfly, landscapes, marine ecosystems and diverse habitats.