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Stop Montana Senator Steve Daines from taking oil and gas rules back to 1951

This spring, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized new rules that will address the orphaned well crisis that is growing across the West as oil and gas operators abandon thousands of oil and gas wells without cleaning up or reclaiming the land. These new rules include updated reclamation bonds that incentivize industry to clean up their well sites or provide the money for cleanup when they fail–bond amounts that haven’t increased since 1951. 

Unfortunately, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) is choosing corporate polluters over western communities and clean water, land and air by introducing legislation that would nullify the rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If enacted, this CRA resolution would silence the voices of over 260,000 westerners (over 99% of all comments submitted) who supported the rule during the public comment period. It would also prohibit the BLM from taking action that is “substantially the same” ever again, which risks going back to the 1951 reclamation bond amounts that subsidize the oil and gas industry and shortchange taxpayers. 

Urge members of Congress to oppose Senator Daines’ attack on these common sense oil and gas rules. 

We’re still fighting for the right to know where our beef comes from.

Not all Country of Origin Labeling legislation is created equal. We need labeling bills with teeth and firm deadlines. Transnational Meatpackers need to be held accountable for lying to consumers. And Congress needs to stand up for American producers, not WTO bureaucrats in Geneva. 

WORC is teaming up with ranchers, consumers, and members of Congress from both political parties to reinstate country-of-origin labeling for beef by passing the American Beef Labeling Act (S.52) in the Senate and the Country of Origin Labeling Enforcement Act (H.R.5081) in the House of Representatives.

We need your help to get it over the finish line. Let your Congressional delegation know that COOL is important to you and they need to support it. Together we can hold big ag and their cronies accountable and restore transparency in our food system.

Tell your delegation that you want protection from oil and gas interests

This summer, over 250,000 people provided comments in support of strengthening oil and gas bonding rules. However, the US House passed Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert’s bill threatening western communities by allowing the oil and gas industry to drill wells, make money, and more often than not, vanish when it’s time to clean up the mess. The House is giving the industry permission to walk away from their obligations and leave us to pay for cleanup while we breathe the toxic air and drink polluted water after they skip town. 

Don’t let powerful oil and gas interests weaken the safeguards we all deserve—protections from bad actors in the oil and gas industry, protections that ensure operators plug and clean up wells when they’re depleted, protections that save us millions of dollars.

Defend the Packers and Stockyards Act from harmful Congressional rider

The Biden Administration is weeks away from announcing new, common sense rules which would bring the PSA into the 21st century, reigning in the big packers and their unfair practices. The powerful meatpacking lobby is pushing their cronies in Congress to defund this vital new rule in the 2024 appropriations process by blocking USDA from even sharing the proposed rule with the public for comment.

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Help BLM ensure that oil and gas companies clean up their messes

The Bureau of Land Management is poised to make a long-overdue update to its rules requiring oil and gas companies to put up more money for cleanup before they drill. These reclamation bonds are strong incentives for oil and gas operators to plug and reclaim old wells when they’re depleted. The rules haven’t been updated since 1960 and they’re comically out-of-step with the costs of reclaiming modern wells that may be miles deep. 

Powerful oil and gas interests are already fighting these new protections. We need you to speak up in support of these new rules to ensure that these common-sense safeguards aren’t weakened.

Tell EPA to clean up toxic coal ash pits

It’s time to close the loophole that left over a half-billion tons of toxic coal ash exempt from federal safeguards. After years of litigation and grassroots activism, the EPA is addressing the gaps in its current Coal Ash Rules that left half of coal ash unregulated and allowed coal plants to avoid cleaning up toxic coal ash across the country. Now is our opportunity to tell the EPA why it is so crucial to include all inactive ponds (also called legacy ponds) throughout the country. 

Tell BLM to Stop Leasing Coal

Federal coal under control of the BLM remains the largest single source of climate pollution in the United States. But, now that the BLM is looking for input on the program, we have an opportunity to tell the federal government to put the federal coal program in line with the Biden administration’s goals on climate, the environment, and fairness for the American taxpayer. We must advocate for BLM to stop coal leasing on federal land and implement better frameworks to hold coal companies accountable.

Demand the EPA protect communities from methane pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency’s updated draft rule to cut methane and other harmful pollutants from oil and gas operations across the country is an important step forward, but it left out the routine venting and flaring of the harmful pollutants at well sites. If we work quickly, we have the opportunity to change it. Demand that the EPA put an end to routine venting and flaring and finalize the strong new rules protecting rural communities.

Tell President Biden it’s time to move on livestock markets

 Join almost 2,000 rural Americans in telling President Biden to reign in livestock markets! Independent farmers and ranchers are losing their farms while the packers are raking in record profits. Add your comment below to urge President Biden to defend western producers, not the meat packer monopolies. Feel free to edit the message. Personalized comments are very effective. We will collect and submit all comments.

Join us in the movement for fair and competitive markets

As you might be aware, multinational corporations have an increasingly concentrated control over our agriculture and food system. This lack of competition leads to higher prices at the grocery store, lower wages for workers, and unfair prices for farmers and ranchers. The good news is that we have an opportunity to do something about it. 

In July, the Biden administration issued an Executive Order “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” The Order includes directing USDA to issue new rules under the Packers & Stockyards Act, defining what meat can bear the “Product of USA” label, and increasing opportunities for farmers to access fair markets. As we prepare for these rulemakings to come out, we’d like to hear what you’d demand USDA do to ensure competitive markets. Click the button to take our survey.

Tell Congress to pass the Build Back Better Act

Demand that our leaders in DC commit to this historic investment in our future. The Build Back Better Act will provide $555 Billion into the effort to address the climate crisis, expand renewable energy, and implement fiscal reforms to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. Tell the Senate to pass the Build Back Better Act without delay. 

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Take action to ensure fair oil and gas rules

Congress is poised to make a massive investment in our country. Within the ‘Build Back Better Plan,’ a set of common-sense reforms to our federal oil and gas leasing system have the potential to make sure our publicly owned oil and gas is managed for our benefit, not for the pocketbooks of oil company CEO’s.

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Tell Biden: we support environmental protections

The Biden Administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has issued a proposed rule as the first step in a two-phase rulemaking process to reverse NEPA rollbacks. Phase 1 is a limited rulemaking to restore some key NEPA protections. Phase 2 is intended to be a more comprehensive rule to address additional key concerns like ensuring strong public participation. Right now during Phase 1, we want to send a strong message that CEQ must move swiftly to fully restore critical NEPA protections – for public input, scientific integrity, and the consideration of climate, public health, and environmental impacts.

Help restore NEPA. Tell CEQ we support their proposed rule.

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Tell Interior to Reform the Federal Coal Program and Protect Our Climate

WORC members have worked for decades to ensure that taxpayers, landowners, and those of us who live downstream are protected from the harmful effects of mining coal owned by the federal government.

Today, as the world reckons with the worst effects of climate change, the Department of the Interior is once again asking us for help in reforming a program that accounts for the single greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country: publicly-owned coal.

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Tell the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to cut methane pollution

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally revisiting one of the largest contributors to climate change – methane air pollution from the oil and gas industry. They hosted three listening sessions in June 2021, and are requesting community and stakeholder input on an upcoming EPA methane rule that would restore reasonable regulation of oil and gas companies’ methane pollution. 

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period. Due to its short lifetime in the atmosphere, quick action now has the ability to curb the global rate of warming by 30%, lessening overall warming by one-quarter of a degree Celsius by 2050. 

Protect your community from methane pollution. Demand that the EPA enact a strict methane rule to cut methane pollution 65% by 2025. 

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Urge Congress to restore common-sense methane waste safeguards today!

Four years ago, our members across the West hit the phones and organized to stop the rollback of common-sense air pollution standards for new oil and gas wells in a newly elected Republican Senate–and won, handing the Trump Administration their first defeat in Congress. Without the support of Congress, it took the Trump EPA years to roll back the requirement that oil and gas companies limit their methane pollution.

Fortunately now, with one simple vote, this Congress can get regulation of methane emissions from the oil and gas industry back on track. A pair of resolutions pending before the House and the Senate will, if approved, rescind damaging policies adopted by the previous administration, restore pollution protections, and clear the way for EPA to adopt next-generation standards for all oil and gas operations.

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TELL YOUR SENATOR—SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE HAALAND’S NOMINATION!

“Representative Haaland’s leadership could not be more timely and necessary.”

In this closely divided Senate, every voice of support counts. Reach out to your senator asking them to support Representative Debra Haaland to become the next secretary of the interior.

Members of Congress across the West support their colleague, Representative Debra Haaland, leading the Department of the Interior. But our opposition, which wants to see another oil and gas lobbyist lead the department, is starting to organize against us. Your Senator needs to hear your support before Representative Haaland’s nomination is heard this month!

Tell your senator to support Representative Haaland’s Nomination to Secretary of the Interior!

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TELL YOUR SENATOR: CREATE JOBS AND CLEAN UP ORPHANED OIL AND GAS WELLS NOW

Companies should pay to clean up their oil and gas operations, NOT taxpayers or landowners. With oil and gas demand falling dramatically during the pandemic, thousands of oil and gas wells are being idled, and not all operators are able to properly plug and reclaim them. In many cases, operators are going bankrupt and leaving behind newly orphaned wells with insufficient funds for plugging and reclamation, costing workers their jobs and shifting the clean-up costs to taxpayers. Energy experts have estimated that a major federal cleanup program could create more than 120,000 jobs, putting skilled workers in mostly rural areas back to work quickly.

Take action: Tell your senator to create jobs and reclaim wells!

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DEFEND CLEAN ENERGY AND BUILD A MORE RESILIENT, JUST FUTURE FOR ALL!

Transitioning to clean energy is one of the most promising cornerstones of an economic recovery that benefits all people and our planet. Clean energy industries (solar, wind, geothermal, energy efficiency, and storage) employ more people than fossil fuel industries and, with the right support, are poised to create even more jobs that can be done in a world of social distancing.

Take action: Click here to speak out on this critical issue.

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Defend clean energy and tell FERC not to kill net metering

The clean and renewable energy revolution is well underway, but an anti-clean-energy group is pushing a major rule change at the federal level that would threaten affordable clean energy in every state. Solar developments in the West depend heavily on allowing homeowners to sell their excess clean energy to their neighbors at a fair price. If successful, this proposal would eliminate the pricing structure that has made solar affordable in our region.  

Take action: Tell FERC to deny the petition now!

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