Protecting America’s Public Lands and Waters from Drilling

Photo by Loren Blackford
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of America's last truly wild places and must be preserved. | Photo by Loren Blackford

Public lands and waters should never be threatened by oil and gas drilling. We work to protect these special places from legislative assaults and federal regulatory rollbacks that threaten to open them up to exploitation by the fossil fuel industry.

February 12, 2018

Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a proposal to gut a key safeguard that would limit methane pollution from oil and gas drilling operations. This is the first major air rule proposal to come out of the Trump administration.

January 31, 2018

Represented by Trustees for Alaska, Sierra Club and other conservation groups today challenged Interior Secretary Zinke’s recent approval of a land exchange to facilitate road construction through wilderness lands in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Zinke’s approval ignores deep flaws in the road building plan, including its exorbitant cost, high winter use risks, and detrimental impacts on the wildlife of the refuge and the Alaska Native subsistence it supports.

January 24, 2018

Advocates plan for huge anti-border wall event in Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge.

January 8, 2018

The House Natural Resources Committee today will hold a hearing on Rep. John Curtis’ H.R. 4532 “Shash Jaa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act.” The bill would not only codify President Trump’s illegal cuts to Bears Ears National Monument but also delegate management of the monument to local officials and tribal representatives hand-picked by the Utah delegation, foregoing input from Tribal governments. Management plans laid out in the bill exclude three of the five tribes that advocated for Bears Ears protection.

January 8, 2018

Utahns protest Bears Ears changes.

January 5, 2018

Trump is using U.S. tax dollars to fund his anti-environment, cruel agenda.

December 19, 2017

Big oil's contribution in Senate soon to pay off.

December 15, 2017

Protect the Arctic Refuge. The message illuminated Trump International Hotel sending a hard to miss directive to Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. currently rushing through the tax scheme. The plan seeks to offset tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate polluters with revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain-- an area vital for the survival of the Gwich’in Nation, and one of the country’s last remaining wild places.

December 13, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House Natural Resources Committee today will hold a hearing on the Grand Staircase-Escalante Enhancement Act, HR 4588. Contrary to what the name implies, the bill would codify President Trump’s illegal proclamation cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante by half.In anticipation, Dalal Aboulhosn, Sierra Club deputy legislative director, issued the following statement:

December 13, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to reports, Sen. Murkowski has confirmed that a provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling is included in the final tax scheme proposal. The provision would effectively remove the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the refuge system, opening the entire 1.5 million acres to drilling. The provision ignores the importance of the area to the Gwich’in Nation, as well as a host of environmental safeguards, and cost realities that make raising the estimated revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge nearly…