Senate Democrats are attempting to block any more fossil fuels being taken from public lands, but even the crafter of the legislation believes the effort is ultimately futile.
The “Keep It In The Ground Act” was introduced in the Senate Wednesday by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and has six co-sponsors. The bill would stop the federal government from issuing new leases and end current leases that aren’t productive for coal, oil, natural gas, shale oil and tar sands extraction on all public lands, in the Pacific Ocean and in the Gulf of Mexico.
It also would ban offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s coast and in the Atlantic Ocean.
Merkley admitted at a rally in front of the Capitol Wednesday that the bills were mostly symbolic as a Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely to take them up.
“It’s not going to happen at this moment in this building,” he said. “It’s going to depend on grassroots rallying across America. … It’s the grassroots that are going to make this happen.”
The goal of the legislation is to keep 80 percent of the world’s known oil reserves in the ground and prevent them from being burned for fuel. Many scientists blame the burning of fossil fuels for causing climate change and the warming of the planet.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and many environmental leaders joined Merkley south of the Capitol building.
Sanders emphasizes “the debate is over” on climate change science during his campaign stump speech and, during the first Democratic presidential primary debate, called climate change the country’s biggest national security threat. On Wednesday, he spoke about his children and grandchildren and the moral responsibility he feels to leave them a healthy planet.
He also, as he usually does on the campaign trail, blasted Republicans who doubt climate change science.
“There is something about this issue and it speaks to the corruption of our campaign finance system,” he said. “Republicans don’t argue about the science regarding cancer, or diabetes, or heart disease … but somehow, somehow when it comes to climate change there are massive attacks against scientists who tell us the truth about climate change.”
Both senators called on the activists gathered at the rally to work harder on organizing at the local level to put pressure on their representatives in Congress to act on climate change. That’s where the real power of the Keep It In The Ground Act will lie, Sanders said.
“The only way that real change takes place is when millions of people come together and say, ‘You know what, that United States Congress is going to have to work for all of us and not just the fossil fuel industry,'” he said.
The American Petroleum Institute hit out at the legislation as an “extreme” and “anti-consumer” proposal.
Louis Finkel, vice president of the trade organization, said the bill would make the country more dependent on foreign oil because it would shut off domestic production. It would cost the federal government revenue and could kill up to 500,000 jobs.
“The false choice is a political stunt by those who are spouting populist rhetoric for political points; they are not being honest with American voters,” Finkel said.
