House Dems propose halt to drilling on public lands in broad climate bill

House Democrats introduced sweeping climate legislation Tuesday that would halt fossil fuel production on public lands for at least a year as the nation prepares to drastically cut climate-warming pollution from its own land holdings. The bill from the House Natural Resources Committee requires the Department of the Interior to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions on public lands by 2040. Grijalva said the yearlong moratorium on fossil fuel production would be meant to give Interior time to assess how to meet the 2040 goal of net-zero emissions, though the bill also sets targets in five year increments that the department must meet. The department would be barred from issuing new leases until they came into compliance with the targets. The plan would ratchet up the royalties paid by fossil fuel companies that drill and mine on the nation’s more than 600 million acres of public land, raising fees from roughly 12 percent to 18 percent. That increased cost of doing business would be used to create a transition fund to help communities that are largely dependent on the fossil fuel industry. In a nod to the Green New Deal, Grijalva referred to them as “fees that big oil and not taxpayers will have to cover” that would be used for land reclamation, cleaning up the environment as well as the retraining of workers. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said the bill would help curb the nearly quarter of U.S. emissions that are produced on public lands, specifically calling out methane being leaked by oil and gas operations...MORE

From the Dem's press release 

“The federal government should be leading the way in the effort to combat climate change, yet the way our country manages our lands make us one of the worst offenders,” said Vice Chair Haaland. “Earlier this year, several of us went to New Mexico for a field hearing, and we visited Chaco Canyon and surrounding sites. When we were there, we used an infrared camera to watch poison coming out of drilling equipment and pipes. You could smell it. We experienced headaches from breathing it in, and heard stories about how it affects the health of children who live nearby. This bill will move us toward net zero emissions on public lands, but what’s even more important is this bill focuses on our communities. It will provide financial assistance to workers like those in New Mexico that will be economically impacted by a transition away from fossil fuel extraction on public lands.”

 The full text of H.R. 5435 is available at http://bit.ly/2RZ7Qwn. A fact sheet explaining the bill’s major provisions is available at http://bit.ly/2M1wc56. A section-by-section of the bill is available athttp://bit.ly/2sDNaQc.