In response to the release of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) final five-year plan, Evergreen Action Energy Transition Policy Lead Mattea Mrkusic released the following statement:

“This five-year offshore leasing plan covers the majority of the time we have left to meet President Biden’s 2030 climate goals, and it’s taking us in the wrong direction. Experts have warned us for years that any new fossil fuel production is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5 C degrees—and just this week the International Energy Agency reaffirmed that these kinds of fossil fuel projects are not needed to meet our energy needs on the path to a safer climate future. While it is encouraging that the administration did not approve all 11 proposed lease sales, the fact remains that any new leasing will make the world more dangerous and less prosperous.

“The new offshore drilling allowed by these sales won’t just accelerate climate change, it will continue subjecting frontline communities to deadly pollution. Advocates in Gulf South and Appalachia, who have experienced the dangerous impacts of fossil fuel development first-hand, and the worst impacts of climate change, are absolutely right to call for the rejection of all new fossil fuels. It’s time for President Biden to listen to them. We don’t have time to go backward.”

Last year, Evergreen Action partnered with Earthjustice to release Meeting the Moment: How President Biden Can Align the Federal Fossil Fuel Program to Deliver on Climate and Put People Profits, a report outlining policy recommendations to overhaul the current federal leasing program including a key recommendation to offer no new offshore leasing in this updated five-year plan.