A Road Map to Net-Zero Emissions for Fossil Fuel Development on Public Lands

• Date: 01 September 2020

50 E LR 10734 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 9-2020

ARTICLES

A ROAD MAP TO NET-ZERO

EMISSIONS FOR FOSSIL FUEL

DEVELOPMENT ON PUBLIC LANDS

by Jamie Gibbs Pleune, John C. Ruple, and Nada Wolff Culver

Jamie Gibbs Pleune is a Wallace Stegner Center Legal Fellow, S.J. Quinney College of

Law at the University of Utah. John C. Ruple is Professor of Law (research) and Wallace

Stegner Center Legal Fellow, S.J. Quinney College of Law. Nada Wolff Culver is Vice

President, Public Lands and Senior Policy Counsel, at the National Audubon Society.

In producing over 274 million barrels of oil, 3.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 302 million tons of

coal each year, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) decisions signif‌icantly impact U.S. and global

greenhouse gas emissions; fossil fuels produced on federal land account for almost 24 percent of all U.S.

CO2 emissions. This Article provides a legal road map for BLM to require all new oil and gas development to

achieve net-zero emissions as a condition of operation. It argues that BLM has a legal duty to mitigate th e risk

of catastrophic climate change in its permitting decisions. The road map is based on the existing legal struc-

ture and explains how BLM can begin charting a course toward carbon-neutral energy development without

waiting for congressional action.

“Let me be very clear today . . . e world does

have a carbon budget. It’s nite and it’s running

out fast, and we need a rapid transition to net-

ze ro .”¹ e chief executive ocer of BP, Bernard Looney,

might be an unexpected climate spokesman, but his state-

ment reects scientic consensus. In 2019, the Intergovern-

mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a special

report emphasizing the importance of limiting global

warming to 1.5° Celsius (C).² Limiting global warming

1. Robert Perkins, BP Sets Target for “Net Zero” Carbon Footprint by 2050,

P O N, Feb. 13, 2020.

2. Summary for Policymakers, in G W  1.5°C. A IPCC S-

 R   I  G W  1.5°C A P-

I L  R G G G E

P,   C  S  G R

  T  C C, S D, 

requires adhering to a carbon budget t hat is being depleted

as time passes.³ For this reason, the World Economic

Forum’s Global Risks Report identied “‘[f]ailure of cli-

mate change mitigation and adaptation’ [as] the number

one risk by impact and the number two by likelihood over

the next ten years.”4

Regarding fossil fuel development on federal lands, the

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sits amidst a myr-

iad of tensions that pull at the fabric of a carbon budget.

Almost one-quarter of al l U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-

E  E P (Valérie Masson-Delmotte et al. eds.,

IPCC 2018) [hereinafter IPCC Summary for Policymakers].

3. Id . at 12, para. C.1.3.

4. W E F, T G R R 2020, at 12, 34

(2020), available at http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risk_

Report_2020.pdf.

5. Recognizing that there are multiple types of greenhouse gases (GHGs) with

diering properties, this Article generally refers to GHG emissions as a

whole, without distinguishing between the dierent gases. However, where

a specic statistic or reference identies a particular gas or refers to carbon

dioxide equivalent (CO2e), the specicity is reected in this Article. For

more information about the dierent properties of GHGs and for a deni-

tion of CO2e, see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Greenhouse

Gas Emissions: Overview of Greenhouse Gases, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemis-

sions/overview-greenhouse-gases (last updated May 28, 2020).

SUMMARY

Authors' Note: Thank you to Ryan Lolar for his careful review

and thoughtful comments on drafts of this Article, and to the

Wilburforce Foundation for supporting this research effort.

The Wilburforce Foundation did not review any aspect of

this Article prior to publication or otherwise exercise edito-

rial control. The views expressed herein do not necessarily

represent those of the state of Utah, the University of Utah, or

project funders.

Copyright © 2020 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.