Analysis: Fossil fuel ban on public lands becomes issue in 2020 Democratic race
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren at a campaign stop in South Carolina.
Between 2005 and 2014, the extracting and burning of fossil fuels from federal lands made up nearly a quarter of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions,But other presidential candidates, hailing from oil-and-gas-producing states, have stopped short of calling for such a moratorium, bringing into relief a potential fault line among Democrats as the presidential primary heats up.
explaining her overall approach to public lands management, which also included setting a goal of getting 10 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources offshore or on public lands. Since then, the idea of a fossil-fuel moratorium has gained momentum among Democrats. Last month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has made climate change the centerpiece of his White House bid,And just this week, the campaigns of Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, told The Washington Post that their candidates also want to freeze fossil-fuel leasing on public lands.
One issue that keep-it-in-the-ground supporters must contend with is the unintended consequence of banning new leasing. In additional to potential local job losses, a fossil-fuel moratorium on public lands could eventually deprive state governments of revenue streams from royalties used to fund schools, parks and other projects liberals usually like.
In fact, President Barack Obama took a significant step on that front in his last year in office when he “The next president could issue an even broader moratorium, covering oil and gas as well as coal,” said Michael Gerrard, an environmental law professor at Columbia Law School.
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