Dear NRDC Activist,

We’re facing two major threats to our public lands and waters from the Trump administration:

1. The administration announced last week a dangerous, illegal plan that includes steamrolling bedrock environmental laws by whittling down or bypassing environmental review of proposed drilling and mining projects on environmentally-sensitive public lands and waters.
2. The Interior Department is reportedly analyzing whether to remove or weaken protections for several of our cherished national monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. This move could allow oil and gas drilling, or copper and uranium mining, in some of our most iconic public places. An attack on one national monument is an attack on all of our public lands.

Their goal: let corporate polluters mine or drill with little oversight, no science, and practically no say from the public.

We won’t ignore this. If the administration is trying to avoid public input, we’ll create our own public outcry.

Tell Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the Interior Department that you refuse to stay silent while they bypass environmental protections to rush through dirty drilling and mining projects.

The administration is trying to fast-track oil, gas, coal, and mining projects on public lands and waters under the guise of a “National Energy Emergency.” But the U.S. is not in an energy emergency — we’re the world’s leading producer of oil and gas.

The Interior Department’s plan will also leave wildlife, habitat, and sacred cultural sites vulnerable to destruction by disregarding Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act safeguards.

These changes silence the public by slashing public comment windows and short-circuiting Tribal consultation processes, minimizing the role of communities, scientists, and local governments.

None of this is a surprise given the administration’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda — Secretary Burgum has referred to the nation’s public lands as assets on “America’s balance sheet.” And his agency has been hard at work considering plans to sell, lease, and otherwise privatize our public lands and waters.

Add your voice now to oppose the Trump administration’s illegal giveaway to corporate polluters.

NRDC’s legal team is considering every one of our options to fight back against these threats — but in the meantime, we need your help to mobilize a massive public outcry in defense of our shared lands and waters.

Together we’ve fought back against attacks on our public lands before — including going to court to fight to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante after the first Trump administration worked to gut them. NRDC supporters generated nearly 22,000 messages to Burgum supporting the Public Lands Rule, and just months ago, submitted nearly 150,000 comments to the administration in support of protections for 13 million acres in the Western Arctic Reserve.

We cannot stay silent now. Our public lands and waters are for all of us, not for corporate polluters.

Send your urgent message in defense of our cherished wild places.

Sincerely,

Bobby McEnaney
Director of Land Conservation, NRDC