NWF: On First Ever Carbon Pollution Limits, We Can’t Wait

March 15-The Obama administration may delay first-ever limits on carbon pollution from new power plants, according to a report Friday by the Washington Post.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

“The Environmental Protection Agency went through a rigorous process to design the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from new power plants. They’re long overdue, desperately needed to protect America’s wildlife and communities from climate change, and over three million Americans have spoken up in support of them. Any signal they’re stalled just ensures further delay in confronting climate change at a time when the Americans are looking for momentum.

Today, a bipartisan group of Western representatives and senators introduced the Public Lands and Renewable Energy Development Act of 2013.

I am feeling giddy. Let me tell you why.

Growing up on the East Coast, our town playground and basketball court were the extent of my understanding of public lands. Though our eastern states also have their fair share of state and federal forest land and park systems, my first experience with real public lands came during a cross country bicycle ride. I fell in love with the wide open spaces I didn’t have in my backyard back home.

On a bike it’s easy to see how much use we get out of our federal public lands—like the 285 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Hunting, fishing, hiking, all forms of energy development, ranching, off-road vehicle use, and incredible wildlife habitat to boot. Experiencing our Western public lands in person made me proud to live in America.

I’ve since learned more about the pressures our public lands are feeling, particularly from a rapidly changing climate and energy development decisions. National Wildlife Federation’s recent report, Wildlife in a Warming World, highlighted the impacts of increased drought, wildfire, and invasive species on big game, sagebrush habitat, and other sensitive wildlife

A Framework for Renewable Energy Development on Public Lands

So that gets us back to the bill introduced today by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and others. It creates the framework for more efficient, responsible renewable energy development on public lands and would strategically direct the revenue from development to pay back local communities, fish and wildlife resources, and hunting and angling access potentially impacted by this clean energy development.

It’s a win-win for clean energy and wildlife conservation and you heard it right in the intro—supported by Westerners from both parties. That’s cause for celebration in and of itself!

In 2009, our public lands had zero approved solar energy projects and very few wind energy projects. With a lot of effort, this changed over the last three years, with now over 30 projects and 12GW permitted, enough power for 3-5 million homes per year.

To be frank, our current system for wind and solar development on public lands is woefully inefficient for every interested stakeholder—the clean energy industry and the wildlife advocate. It nearly always results in more conflict than necessary.

This bill helps solve these significant barriers to clean energy development and wildlife conservation. It also ensures some of the revenues from development on public lands goes back to impacted communities, particularly through a conservation fund for cumulative impacts to the landscape and sportsmen’s access.

As we embark on a clean energy future, there is a model to avoid. 140 years ago the U.S. Congress passed a law to promote mining and Western expansion, with provisions that hinder wildlife and habitat conservation to this day. For decades, campaigns have worked to fix that mining law.

Let’s not look back 30 years from now with the realization that we made the same policy mistakes in the rush to stop carbon pollution with wind and solar energy on public lands. Instead, let’s put in place now the right framework for efficient, sustainable development of wind and solar energy and help address its impacts with a conservation fund.

Learn more about NWF’s efforts to advocate for wildlife-friendly renewable energy >>

While visitors to the Grand Canyon area see impressive vistas, rock formations and wildlife populations, some of these companies see an opportunity for destructive and consumptive land use.

Fortunately, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, restored protection of this one million-acre area surrounding the Grand Canyon again this July. The ban restricts all new uranium mining projects for a two-year period in which the U.S. Department of the Interior will evaluate mining impacts on the lands.

Mining companies claim that because their projects must follow Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act standards, they are safe. Yet no total assessment of uranium mining in the Grand Canyon area has been undertaken until now.

Although an exploration permit does not guarantee actual drilling will be approved, Grand Canyon admirers and residents of the area have every reason to be concerned with the impacts of mining. The canyon is one of our nation’s most impressive natural destinations and it’s disheartening to think this refuge for wildlife and outdoor activists alike is not free from harmful mining practices.

One tributary of the Colorado River–Horn Creek–is under investigation due to its high radioactive levels. The Colorado River is not just a stream meandering along the Grand Canyon, it also provides water to millions of people and wildlife surrounding the desert area.

Not only is the radioactivity of water a concern, but also the leaching of mercury and arsenic from these mines. Residents relying on water from the Colorado River can’t settle for an answer that its “safe enough” until a proper assessment is done.

There has been an outpouring of support for the ban of new uranium mining from American Indian tribes, Arizona residents and city and county officials, but you don’t have to be a resident of the West to show how much you value the preservation of America’s Grand Canyon lands.

Add your voice today by telling the Bureau of Land Management to approve a long-term ban of new uranium mining projects near the precious lands of the Grand Canyon.

Four signature sites of this year’s celebration were the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC; Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California; Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles, CA; and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, GA.

In addition to those who participated at one of these signature sites, thousands across the country took part in local public lands events, helping them to gain knowledge about critical environmental issues facing their communities and about the need to be stewards for these precious areas.

Although this national event is aimed toward building community and improving public lands for recreation, restoring America’s public lands also ensures vital habitat protection for our nation’s wildlife.

As one example, Wyoming’s Powder River Basin serves as a favorite recreation destination for outdoor enthusiasts out west while its Fortification Creek area also provides an important elk habitat.

Unfortunately right now, this critical area of public land is being slated for coal bed methane gas development. This process requires draining the existing aquifer to reach the methane and then disposing of this saline water. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of this extraction are still not fully understood.

Already, drilling has been approved for this area even though no research has been completed on the potentially devastating effects of this decision for the people that enjoy this land and the wildlife that call it home.

We can’t wait for another rugged area to be lost to destructive oil and gas development on public lands. Speak up today and tell Bureau of Land Management director Bob Abbey to slow this hasty project that threatens Wyoming’s Fortification Creek area.

CNet News: GreenTech reports:

“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, in conjunction with the Department of Energy, this week released six maps that could help determine the location of the next big push in solar energy.The BLM maps cover areas within the six U.S. states most suitable for solar energy generation and transmission as judged by the U.S. government: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

“Only lands with excellent solar resources, suitable slope, proximity to roads and transmission lines or designated corridors, and containing at least 2,000 acres of BLM-administered public lands were considered for solar energy study areas. Sensitive lands, wilderness and other high-conservation-value lands as well as lands with conflicting uses were excluded,” according to a BLM statement released with the maps.”

See full article.

Over the last five years, it’s been one thing after another threatening to take the character and beauty from our public lands. From fossil fuel development occurring at an unprecedented rate and conducted rashly and irresponsibly to dirty mining and threats to sell-off public lands for short term gains, public lands have been abused and all but forgotten as the national treasure they truly are.

Almost 1/3 of the United States is public lands — lands held in trust by all Americans that provide vital habitat for our wildlife, clean water and open space for recreation. They are also lands we will pass on to our children, and our children’s children to experience.

Last week the senate passed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which contains more than 160 separate public lands bills, most of which will expand the protection of our public lands. The Act will provide the largest expansion of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 15 years, designating 2.1 million acres of permanent wilderness in nine states — California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Michigan, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Another one of the bills in the package — the National Landscape Conservation System Act — will provide permanent protection for the first new system of conservation lands in the United States in more than 50 years. Under the National Landscape Conservation System Act, over 850 federally recognized areas covering 27 million acres of the Bureau of Land Management’s most spectacular land and waters will be protected permanently.

The Act now moves to House of Representatives, which is expected to consider it in the coming weeks. Visit www.OurPublicLands.org for more information.

Up next on the chopping block? Teshekpuk Lake, home to at least 45,000 caribou and countless species of migratory birds. Starting Sept. 27, the Bureau of Land Management is planning on leasing out land surrounding the Arctic’s largest lake for oil and gas development.

The area, which is part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), consists of 400,000 acres of coastal lagoons, wet sedge grass meadows and river deltas. It was protected as the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area in 1977–meaning that it would be safe from any future development.

This all changed when the Bush administration–our favorite friend to the environment–decided it was time to remove all those pesky protections.

Even after 80 senators and representatives pled to delay the lease sales of “T-Lake” (as it is commonly called), the Administration is still forging ahead with its plans to destroy one of Alaska’s most diverse wild lands, not to mention a culturally important area for the native peoples of the region.

Put a stop to these lease sales. Urge Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and J.J. Mulva of ConocoPhillips that T-Lake is too special a place to lease for drilling!