Police arrest 13 at Interior Department oil, gas lease protest

WASHINGTON—Police arrested 13 activists on Thursday, Sept. 15, who were protesting oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands at the U.S. Department of the Interior, the agency responsible for auctioning rights to drill. The protesters from groups including Friends of the Earth, Rainforest Action Network and Native American communities are part of a wide ranging "Keep It in the Ground" network. The network has grown after a report published in the journal Nature in early 2015 saying 80 percent of the world's remaining oil, gas and coal has to be left in the ground if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided. "We don't want any more lease sales in Alaska offshore," said Faith Gemmill from Arctic Village, Alaska, a place of about 150 Gwich'in Native Americans. "We see the impacts of climate change every day. The ground in Alaska is literally melting beneath our feet, communities are crumbling into the ocean and need to be relocated," she said. The protesters had aimed to deliver to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell a petition to stop lease sales that they say was signed by 1 million people...more