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Posted on 12/17/2019 2:05:45 PM PST by jazusamo
House Democrats introduced sweeping climate legislation Tuesday that would halt fossil fuel production on public lands for at least a year as the nation prepares to drastically cut climate-warming pollution from its own land holdings.
The bill from the House Natural Resources Committee requires the Department of the Interior to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions on public lands by 2040.
“The Trump administration is handing out drilling and coal mining leases like candy, and no thought is ever given by this administration to the climate change impacts,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) a sponsor of the bill as well as chair of the committee.
“Our bill is about what’s right for the whole country and not just polluting industries,” he added.
Grijalva said the yearlong moratorium on fossil fuel production would be meant to give Interior time to assess how to meet the 2040 goal of net-zero emissions, though the bill also sets targets in five year increments that the department must meet.
The department would be barred from issuing new leases until they came into compliance with the targets.
The plan would ratchet up the royalties paid by fossil fuel companies that drill and mine on the nation’s more than 600 million acres of public land, raising fees from roughly 12 percent to 18 percent. That increased cost of doing business would be used to create a transition fund to help communities that are largely dependent on the fossil fuel industry.
In a nod to the Green New Deal, Grijalva referred to them as “fees that big oil and not taxpayers will have to cover” that would be used for land reclamation, cleaning up the environment as well as the retraining of workers.
The legislation, which would likely face tough scrutiny in the Republican-led Senate, comes as environmentalists left the latest United Nations climate summit disappointed as countries resisted more ambitious climate measures.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said the bill would help curb the nearly quarter of U.S. emissions that are produced on public lands, specifically calling out methane being leaked by oil and gas operations.
Barring oil and gas drilling on public lands isn’t a new idea for the party. A number of Democratic presidential candidates have proposed stopping new oil leases on public lands, though many have been hesitant to end ongoing drilling as well.
The House already voted this year to bar drilling along nearly the entirety of the U.S. coastline. Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are also working on a bill that would push the U.S. to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Before kicking the UN out of the US, we need to put all the congressional dems into the UN.
Somebody’s pockets are being lined by the powers that be in the Middle East.
If they’re serious about reducing emissions, start with shutting down DC.
Best Stooges Putin can buy.
Impeachment Testimony Describes Putin’s Propaganda War On American Fracking
https://www.newsweek.com/intelligence-putin-funding-anti-fracking-campaign-547873
INTELLIGENCE: PUTIN IS FUNDING THE ANTI-FRACKING CAMPAIGN
What no Trillion dollars for the UN to save the Planet
Putin and Russia are paying for it. US Energy policy is destroying Russia’s ability to pay for its global political games
NYS is so in debt....but refuse to use our fracking assets. Yhe State legislature is owned by the Dems. The people....we're nothing. It's all about power.
Bump!
“ and no thought is ever given by this administration to the climate change impacts,”
That’s because it’s bogus.
I LOVE how all the msm outlets are deluded like hitler was at the end, moving around imaginary armies :)
They write like there’s NO Senate.
Or President :)
Those 2 nuisances :)
It’s the dem majority in Marxist central NYC. And other cities in the state and university towns. They want those in the southern tier to die I suppose
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What nation is the journo-droid talking about? We are NOT doing anything like this. This legislation is DOA.
And this is why they can NEVER hold all the house and senate EVER AGAIN.
At least some of it from that swag Obama gave the Iranians, no doubt.
Exactly. The Rats ignore illegal immigration and actively support opening our borders yet keep pounding the table about supposed global warming and climate change.
The two former issues are by far more of a threat to our nation and way of life than the latter.
“You, you, you, you can’t just drill your way out of this.”
-Bronco Bomma
Did you hear something?
NatGas power plants put out less net pollutants than windmills and solar.
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