Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/6/2015
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) this week introduced legislation that would halt the extraction of fossil fuels from federal lands. The “Keep it in the Ground” bill would serve three main purposes: to stop new and end nonproducing coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and tar sands leases on all federal lands; to stop new leases and end nonproducing leases for offshore drilling in the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico; and to prohibit offshore drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic.
“To limit our plant’s warming to 2 degrees Celsius we must leave in the ground 80 percent of the world’s proven reserves,” Merkley said at a press event on Wednesday. “So part of the answer lies beneath our feet. U.S. public owned fuel reserves constitute 10 percent of the planet’s reserves. If we must keep 80 percent of the fossil fuel reserves in the ground, then we must keep our United States fossil fuel reserves, owned by the citizens, in the ground.”
The legislation is co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The lawmakers are realistic about the future of the bill, however, which stands little chance in a Republican-controlled Senate. “We do not anticipate a committee hearing. We do not anticipate a committee vote. We do not anticipate a floor vote in [this] situation,” Merkley said.
Alongside the Keep it in the Ground Act, a related piece of legislation concerning fossil fuel industry jobs is in the works, Sanders said at the press event. “What we have got to do is to understand that workers in the fossil fuel industry, through no fault of their own, they’re just trying to make a living, are producing a product that is endangering our planet,” Sanders said. “We have the moral responsibility to make sure that as we transition away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy these workers are protected.” The new legislation will include educational and job training opportunities, Sanders said.
