Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Sells Out Wildlife Along with American Lands and Waters

Defenders of Wildlife strongly condemns the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for selling out wildlife in its text for the upcoming budget reconciliation bill. The committee’s text includes mandates for millions of acres of public land sales, along with increased logging and massive oil and gas lease sales on American public lands and waters. It mandates additional oil and gas leasing on the habitats of America’s most iconic wildlife, including portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  

“This bill targets endangered wildlife like polar bears and whales, along with hundreds of other species that will be placed at risk by activities of the oil, gas and timber industries that destroy or degrade their homes,” said Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife. “The Senate is betraying all Americans who love our unique wildlife and wild places. Public lands and waters should be preserved for future generations, not sold off to line the pockets of industry executives.”  

Among other harmful provisions, the proposed text will:

• Mandate the sell-off of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management public lands for development in eligible states including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
• Require quarterly lease sales of onshore oil and gas in any state with available land, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada and Alaska.  
• Increase logging by raising timber targets and requiring the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to issue 45 contracts that will last for the next 20 years.
• Require no fewer than 30 offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico in a 15-year period.
• Require the Secretary of Interior to offer at least 80,000,000 acres for each lease sale in the Gulf, and at least one million acres for each offshore lease sale in Cook Inlet.
• Require no fewer than six lease sales in Cook Inlet, Alaska over a seven-year period.
• Mandate at least four lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge within 10 years.
• Require no fewer than five lease sales by not later than 10 years in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska.
• Allow companies to pay a $1 million fee for natural gas exports to be automatically deemed in the public interest.
• Bypass review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by predetermining that obligations under this law have been met for offshore lease sales by an outdated first-term Trump-era Environmental Impact Statement.

The draft legislation proposed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee would:

• Circumvent the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing pay-to-play permitting, pushing through environmental reviews and barring administrative or judicial review for projects by companies that pay an additional fee.
• Rescind IRA funds that would make permitting reviews more efficient, accurate and timely.
• Rescind any remaining IRA funds for recovery of species listed under the Endangered Species Act.  

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For inquiries, please contact Communications Director, Maggie Dewane at mdewane@defenders.org