Wyoming Tells BLM to “Keep it in the Ground” at Oil and Gas Auction

By Tess Geyer

Wyoming Tells BLM to “Keep it in the Ground” at  Oil and Gas Land Auction

This past Tuesday, RAN staff and our allies on the ground went to one of the last in-person land auctions in Cheyenne WY.  RAN activists protested outside and inside the event, holding signs, banners, and letting the Cheyenne community know that our lands and our climate future are NOT for sale.

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The American public owns nearly 650 million acres of federal public land. This includes federal public lands like national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges that make up about a third of the U.S. land area.

Over the past decade, federal fossil fuels has resulted in nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy-related emissions. An August report found that remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that has not been leased to industry contains up to 450 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution. As of earlier this year, 67 million acres federal fossil fuel were already leased to industry, an area more than 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park containing up to 43 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution.

More than 400 organizations and leaders last September called on President Obama to end federal fossil fuel leasing. Since this call, allies and supporters of the Keep It In the Ground movement have been active at nearly all land auction events across the country.

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Recently, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to move these auctions online, citing modernization and increased efficiency as their reasoning why. Keep It In the Ground activists disagree; with constant presence at in person auctions (including protests and rallies both inside and outside) the public outcry has become too much for the BLM.  

We will continue to mobilize. We will continue to raise our voices. Our message is clear; no new leases, no new pipelines.

Check out the awesome media coverage of our event here

If you haven’t had a chance, sign our petition here