FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contacts:

Landon Newell, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, (801) 428-3991, landon@suwa.org 

Steve Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, (801) 428-3981, steve@suwa.org 

Salt Lake City, UT (January 27, 2021) – President Biden today issued an Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which, among other things, places a pause on oil and gas leasing on federal public lands and commits the United States to a ten-year goal of conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

In response, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance legal director Steve Bloch issued the following statement:

“We are grateful that President Biden is following through on his commitment to reassert our nation as a climate leader, not a climate denier. 

 “The President’s decision to order a pause on new oil and gas leasing on federal public lands is a common sense and desperately needed step to right the ship and chart a more thoughtful, climate conscious path forward as our nation Builds Back Better. 

 “Over the past four years, the oil and gas industry stockpiled millions of acres of oil and gas leases and drilling permits across the West. In Utah alone, the industry is sitting on more than 1.7 million acres of unused federal oil and gas leases on some of our nation’s wildest and most culturally significant public lands. At the same time, drilling is at a historically low rate. In this landscape, the Biden administration’s pause on new leasing will not impact the oil and gas industry’s bottomline.”

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