Sierra Club
There are more than 40 national parks around the U.S. in which the federal government owns the surface but not the rights to the minerals underneath. Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona recently introduced legislation that would repeal a rule designed to provide reasonable safeguards from private oil and gas development within national parks. His hope is that the previous administration’s final efforts to improve those safeguards will be rolled back, revoking the National Park Service’s new authorities over oil & gas drilling and leaving them unable to enact any similar regulations or new safety standards unless Congress explicitly authorizes them to – and we know how unlikely that is.
Our National Parks are celebrated worldwide, and we assume that our representatives want to keep them in pristine shape for generations to come – given that 86% of Americans of all stripes want to keep them free of oil and gas drilling. Just not Congressman Gosar, who’s received almost $250,000 from oil and gas interests in his last four election campaigns.
Tell Congress – no drilling in our National Parks!