Christian Gerlach, christian.gerlach@sierraclub.org
Las Vegas, NV-- Late last week, the Nevada Bureau of Land Management released a letter stating that the agency will reduce the amount of public lands in its December oil and gas leasing auction-- from a total of 468,815 acres to 192,178 acres. The reduction comes after pressure from a coalition of outdoors and conservation organizations, elected officials and locals. Included in their formal comments to the agency, the Sierra Club discovered and flagged that the Nevada BLM listed parcels for auction that were legally off limits in the 2008 Regional Management Plan-- an agreement the agency must abide by. Those parcels have now been removed.
In response, Christian Gerlach, Organizer for the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, released the following statement:
“We celebrate the Bureau of Land Management's decision to eliminate hundreds of thousands of acres of land from dangerous oil and gas development, but we will continue to advocate for the stop of fossil fuel extraction on our public lands.
“The climate crisis is here, it is harming our communities and wildlands, and we must make the protection of our public lands a core part of the solution. Preserving our lands will prevent more emissions, protect clean and safe drinking water, and ensure we save these places for the benefit of future generations.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.