Republicans Favor a Drilling & Fracking ‘Free-for-All’ in our National Parks

by Duane Nichols on February 2, 2017

Grand Tetons National Park in NW Wyoming

They Want to Disturb our National Treasures

Dear Friends of the Environment –   February 1, 2017

Donald Trump’s Republican Congress wants our National Parks to become a drilling and fracking free-for-all.

House Republicans have introduced a bill that would allow oil and gas drilling in more than 40 National Parks — Grand Teton National Park, Everglades National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park, just to name three.

It’s insane. Canoe past an oil rig. Hike around a fracking well. And WHEN a spill happens, they destroy the habitats of endangered animals already on the brink.

They don’t care — they’ll do anything to line big oil’s pockets.

The Sierra Club has worked for 125 years to protect these natural treasures, and we’re not letting them fall prey to polluters without a fight. We need your help URGENTLY to stop this disgusting bill — can we count on your emergency gift now?

With parks like Grand Teton, Everglades, and Mesa Verde vulnerable to drilling, we don’t have a moment to waste.

Trump has, since the early days of his campaign, promised to turn our federal parklands over to his billionaire fossil fuel backers at the expense of human health. Now his Republican Congress is falling over themselves to help him do it.

Wiping out current, common-sense drilling rules would devastate our national parks. They’d be subject to poorly regulated exploration. Polluters could drill without informing park employees or visitors — and escape responsibility for leaks and spills.

The Sierra Club is fighting to preserve our last wild places — and the people who enjoy them, and the wildlife who call them home — but we urgently need your help to do it. Please, help us stop this ill-conceived and inhumane bill with a donation now.

Please, help us fight this outrageous anti-environmental legislation now.

Thanks for standing with the Sierra Club to save our natural heritage which, once drilled, fracked or deforested, cannot be replaced.

Sincerely,

Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club

2101 Webster Street, Suite 1300, Oakland, CA 94612

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

A J Bright February 2, 2017 at 3:14 pm

RE: Drilling and Fracking in Our National Parks

Please specify the name and number of this particular bill to introduce fracking into our national parks, so that we can call our congressmen and lodge our firm protests.

Thanks!

REPLY: House Joint Resolution 46, introduced by Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)
Thanks, DGN. P.S. See the next comment for more information.

Reply

National Parks Conservation Assn. February 3, 2017 at 12:04 pm

House Moves to Encourage Drilling in National Parks

Reversal of drilling prohibition part of larger attempt by Congress to weaken park protections.

WASHINGTON – Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) last night introduced H.J. Res. 46, which seeks to repeal updates to the National Park Service’s “9B” rules. The rules require detailed planning and set safety standards for oil and gas drilling inside the more than 40 national parks that have “split estate” ownership, where the federal government owns the surface but not the subsurface mineral rights.

The resolution is just the latest in a series of moves by federal lawmakers to weaken environmental protections for national parks under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If these repeals are signed into law under the CRA, it will not only stop these protections, it will also prohibit agencies from issuing similar rules and protections in the future, unless directed by Congress.

The House is set to vote Friday to repeal rules to prevent the waste of methane gas from oil and gas facilities. CRA challenges were also introduced Monday in the House and Senate to repeal Bureau of Land Management “Planning 2.0” rules, which seek to guide an appropriate balance of energy development, conservation and recreation on public lands by better utilizing environmental science.

Below is a statement by Nicholas Lund, Senior Manager of National Parks Conservation Association’s Conservation Programs:

“These challenges are direct attacks on America’s national parks. Each of these rules provides the commonsense protections for national parks that millions of Americans demand. If the Park Service’s drilling rules are repealed, national parks across the country would be subjected to poorly regulated oil and gas drilling, threatening parks’ air, water and wildlife. These attempts to weaken protections put our parks at risk. And by using the Congressional Review Act process, Congress is forever tying the hands of the agencies charged with protecting America’s favorite places. If Congress wants to protect national parks for future generations, it must reject these challenges.”

BACKGROUND

There are more than 40 national parks where the federal government does not own the mineral rights below the surface, including Cuyahoga Valley NP in Ohio, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

The 9B rules are updates to rules established in 1978 setting reasonable safeguards for national parks from private oil and gas development. The rules simply require an operator to produce a Plan of Operations before accessing their mineral rights, give the National Park Service (NPS) the authority to conduct safety enforcement and provide standard technical requirements for the safeguarding of national park air, water, and wildlife.

If Congress repeals these rules, drilling could occur in national parks with little more than bare-minimum state regulations. The Park Service will have essentially no authority over oil and gas development proposed inside national parks. Leaks and spills could go unpunished without NPS authority to enforce safety standards. Companies would be able to build roads through national parks to begin drilling, such as the 11-mile road through the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve built to reach an oil and gas lease. Drilling companies would not be required to inform parks or park visitors about when or how drilling operations would occur.

###

About National Parks Conservation Association

Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than one million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s natural, historic, and cultural heritage for future generations. For more information, visit http://www.npca.org.

Source: https://www.npca.org/articles/1462-house-moves-to-encourage-drilling-in-national-parks#sm.0000id4wy57bcdphv6i1clwutig19

See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net

Reply

Cheryl February 4, 2017 at 10:18 am

RE: Our National Parks are Now at Risk from Drilling & Fracking

Leave our Parks alone!

They belong to the American people,

our children, and our children’s children…

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