Environment
The U.S. Will Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground—Until After the Paris Climate Talks
Officials postponed the auction of an oil and gas development lease until next spring.
It’s hard to lead the charge against the global consumption of fossil fuels while making money off the sale of them.
Perhaps in recognition of this conundrum, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages some 245 million acres of public land, has announced it will postpone an oil and gas lease auction scheduled for December 10 until March 17, 2016. The leases for sale include nine parcels of land in Arkansas and Michigan, totaling 587 acres, eligible for fossil fuel exploration. That means the federal government won’t be selling off land for oil or gas development just as the COP21 climate talks in Paris approach their dramatic conclusion.