Protecting America’s Public Lands and Waters from Drilling

Photo by Loren Blackford
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of America's last truly wild places and must be preserved. | Photo by Loren Blackford

Public lands and waters should never be threatened by oil and gas drilling. We work to protect these special places from legislative assaults and federal regulatory rollbacks that threaten to open them up to exploitation by the fossil fuel industry.

May 13, 2025

PORT ANGELES, WA -- Today, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is beginning a tour of national park sites – including some in the Pacific Northwest. It comes as the Trump administration continues one of the most serious attacks on American public lands in recent memory.Burgum is scheduled to visit Olympic National Park today during a visit to Washington State. It is Burgum’s second field tour in a week, after visiting an LNG processing facility in Louisiana earlier this month.

May 7, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After an all-day markup, the House Committee on Natural Resources advanced its portion of the Republican reconciliation package in a vote in the dead of night.

May 6, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that the Interior Department temporarily suspended an air-quality monitoring program in the national parks.

May 2, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, the House Committee on Natural Resources unveiled its proposed section for the massive Republican energy, tax, and national security bill.The sprawling proposal, released in the dead of night, includes dozens of provisions  that would benefit the oil and gas industry and other corporations, at the expense of American families.

May 1, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Sens. Angus King and Steve Daines introduced the bipartisan America the Beautiful Act, which would reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) and increase its funding. The LRF, first authorized in the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, needs renewal to continue its work addressing the public lands maintenance backlog. In response, Jackie Ostfeld, Sierra Club Outdoors for All campaign director, said: 

April 16, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC – The Trump administration yesterday announced an emergency transfer of nearly 110,000 acres of land along the U.S.-Mexico border from the Department of the Interior to the Army.

April 10, 2025

Denver, CO - Last Friday, during the budget vote-a-rama, Senator John Hickenlooper sponsored an amendment, with Senator Michael Bennet joining as a co-sponsor, which would have prevented the sale of public lands from being included in the budget reconciliation package that will be moving through Congress soon.

April 10, 2025

Washington, DC – Today, House Republicans adopted a FY2025 Budget Resolution that sets the stage for them to make dangerous cuts to essential services, sell off our public lands, and give even more huge tax breaks to billionaires and the fossil fuel industry.In response, Sierra Club Director of Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy Mahyar Sorour released the following statement:

March 28, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the White House announced an executive order demanding the Secretary of the Interior review and reinstate public monuments, statues, and memorials that were previously removed or updated to reflect a more inclusive and accurate accounting of history. The order also bans any monuments and other markers that might criticize colonial figures.

March 18, 2025

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit today affirmed the public’s right to access millions of acres of public land across the West via corner crossing. Conservation and environmental justice groups, who filed an amicus brief in the case last year, celebrated today’s decision.