Las Vegas Sun

April 24, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Stop leasing of public lands

I adamantly oppose unchecked oil and gas drilling on Nevada’s public lands. I and many other residents of our state enjoy the pristine beauty and recreational opportunities on our beloved public lands. We sure don’t want to see pump jacks and fracking towers destroying the landscape and polluting the air and our water supply. Did I mention how fracking can destabilize our fragile subterranean geography and contribute to earthquakes? Nevada is full of fault lines, and drilling and fracking can only contribute to further instability.

But there’s another even more compelling reason to halt fossil fuel destruction on our public lands: the effect it will have on climate change. Because we have a governor who has pledged to make combating climate change a priority, and because we have a congressional delegation that agrees we must take action, we are making tremendous progress to slow climate change and instituting clean energy initiatives. But once again, the backwards Trump administration is putting all of our efforts at risk by offering tens of thousands more acres in Nevada for oil and gas leasing.

We need all levels of government to take these consequences seriously and stop catering to the fossil fuel industry. We must lead from the ground up and use all of our power to push back against lease sales of public lands. Please contact your elected leaders and demand they protest against this senseless, destructive, and unnecessary assault on our public lands.