STUNNER: 1/4 of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Come From Fossil Fuels Mined & Drilled On Public Lands

[kpete]

Stunner: One Quarter of Total U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Come From Fossil Fuels Mined and Drilled on Public Lands

By Public Lands Team on Feb 26, 2012 at 9:38 am
By Jessica Goad

A new report by Stratus Consulting and commissioned by The Wilderness Society released this morning shows that 23 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from oil, gas, and coal extracted from federal lands and waters. As the report states:

In 2009, the most recent year for which total U.S. GHG emissions data are available, the ultimate downstream GHG emissions from fossil fuel extraction from federal lands and waters by private leaseholders could have accounted for approximately 23% of total U.S. GHG emissions and 27% of all energy-related GHG emissions.

The study was commissioned because of deficiencies in the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s first-ever “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for the Federal Government” report released in April 2011. Under Executive Order 13514, all federal agencies were required to “report and reduce greenhouse gas pollution,” which included items such as energy use, fuel consumed by government fleets, and methane generated by landfill waste.

the rest:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/02/26/432203/stunner-one-quarter-of-total-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-come-from-fossil-fuels-mined-and-drilled-on-public-lands/

[prairierose]

1. yes, and the public is being paid almost nothing for that...

oil and gas extracted from the commons. I am not sure if that makes it twice as bad or if it is worse than that. But when I think that the oil and gas companies also get tax subsidies, that makes me want to .....we really have to stop subsidizing these parasites....

[xchrom]

2. +1

[FarCenter]

3. STUNNER? The govt owns all off-shore areas and a large percentage of western states

Why would this be surprising?