Environmental group Friends of the Earthfiled a lawsuitagainst the White House this week after it did not react to quest for information about why the Department of Interior’s2021 leasing programme reportdownplayed mood urging . The reportfailed to mention the environmental impactsof leasing public lands for the function of oil and gasolene boring . It also did n’t say how or whether the government would factor climate change into its consideration of next rental applications .
ally of the Earth submitted a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) bespeak earlier this twelvemonth , asking for records that could explicate why the Department of the Interior ’s report flunk to get in touch climate change to oil and gas projects . accord to the group , theCouncil on Environmental Quality , an executive office in the White House , has repeatedlyignoredthe FOIA request .
The Biden government haswalked back on its promiseto stop oil colour and gas leasing on public lands , even thoughmultiplereportshave warned that we ’re go out of time to ward off massive environmental catastrophe .
Oil wells in crop field near Arvin, Kern County.Photo: Planet/UCG/Universal Images Group (Getty Images)
I speak to Hallie Templeton , Friends of the Earth’slegal conductor , about the suit . This interview has been edited and distil for clarity .
Angely Mercado , Earther : The original FOIA request to the Council on Environmental Quality was file in January . What was supposed to happen after that ?
Hallie Templeton , Friends of the Earth : Friends of the Earth files a lot of FOIA requests . This is our lettuce and butter . This is how we find out what the government is up to . In our experience , when you file away a request with the federal governance , somebody assigns it a FOIA asking number , a tracking identification number . And middling quickly , they respond to you and say , “ We ’ve receive your FOIA requests . We ’re acknowledging that postulation . Here ’s a trailing act we ’ve attribute to that request . ” They unremarkably station us position updates or expect if there ’s any follow - up question . That usually happens far earlier than 20 days .
Earther : I ’m guessing that was n’t the event this time .
Templeton : We submitted a FOIA postulation on January 11 of this year , and there were cricket . There was no confirmation , there was no trailing number , there was no acknowledgement , there was no response .
Earther : Why take effectual activity now ?
Templeton : FOIA provides the alternative to litigate in courtroom if the government agency blows the deadline , so that ’s an machinelike invitation to take the agency to motor lodge if they do not operate within the mandate deadline . We test to do this diplomatically , without going to royal court first . Maybe this lawsuit will get their attention and they will respond to us .
Earther : What are you desire to feel out ?
Templeton : Our target is to see if — and if so , how much — influence the crowing oil industry and vegetable oil producing states had on this account . This report fell brusk of what Biden had promise . The reputation was released on Black Friday , theday after Thanksgiving . What ’s the influence there ? Why did they do that ? Is there any disc there that has a conversation recorded on electronic mail , potentially on call notes ?
[ mayhap when ] the Department of Interior drafted this report , and it give-up the ghost over to the White House for a recap , and then something happened and then when it leave the White House after review , a hatful of clobber was stripped out of it , include clime change discussion . We require to see what happened there and why .
Earther : What was your reaction when you first read the November leasing report ?
Templeton : mood is only cite once in that report . If you look at theexecutive society of January 2021 , climate is in the title of the executive lodge , and that is what mandate that theme . And yet mood change is n’t mentioned at all ? The report is only 18 page long . What the executive parliamentary procedure mandate was a programmatic review of the Union oil and petrol leasing program and their report to observe . How can you fit out a programmatic recapitulation of all of the impact the Union leasing program has , how can you shoehorn that into an 18 - page theme ?
Earther : Once you get ahold of the records , what next ?
Templeton : We certainly promise to be gauze-like , which is more than the government is doing . When we get those document , we will look at them , we will digest them … to help develop materials to disseminate that to the worldwide public and let them recognise what the government is up to and what it imply for climate . What it imply for the surround . And it remains to be seen what the records will show .
There ’s a lot of paths to a “ choose your own adventure . ” But one affair I can promise is that we will be diaphanous … and show the public what ’s been going on behind those unsympathetic doors .
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