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CONSERVATION GROUPS’ COMMENTS <br />UNCOMPAHGRE FIELD OFFICE RMP AND DEIS <br />1 <br />I. BLM Must Consider Existing, New, and Revised National Policy on Climate Change <br />Into RMP Decisionmaking. <br /> <br />The National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) is our “basic national charter for the <br />protection of the environment,” achieving its purpose through “action forcing procedures. . . <br />requir[ing] that agencies take a hard look at environmental consequences.” 40 C.F.R. § 1500.1; <br />Robertson v. Methow Valley Citizens Council, 490 U.S. 332, 350 (1989) (citations omitted) <br />(emphasis added). This includes the consideration of best available information and data, as well <br />as disclosure of any inconsistencies with federal policies and plans. <br /> <br />In 2014, President Obama described climate change as an “urgent and growing threat . . . <br />that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other.”1 In that same <br />year, the U.S. pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions 26-28 percent below <br />2005 levels by 2020.2 Since then, the President has also announced a new goal to cut methane <br />emissions from the oil and gas sector by 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025,3 and set <br />standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector by 32 percent from 2005 <br />levels by 2030.4 In 2015, President Obama recognized, “ultimately, if we’re going to prevent <br />large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, <br />we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release <br />more dangerous pollution into the sky.”5 In his final State of the Union address, President <br />Obama again noted the federal government’s commitment to fighting climate change, vowing <br />“to accelerate the transition away from old, dirtier energy sources,” and making a powerful <br />promise “to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the <br />costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”6 These statements culminated in December, <br />2015 when the President joined with 194 other nations in recognizing “that climate change <br />represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet” and <br />setting the goal of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C <br /> <br />1 The White House, Remarks by the President at U.N. Climate Change Summit (Sept. 23, 2014), <br />available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/23/remarks-president-un- <br />climate-change-summit. 2 U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change (Nov. 11, 2014), available at: <br />https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/11/us-china-joint-announcement-climate- <br />change (attached as Exhibit 46). 3 The White House, Climate Action Plan: Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions (March 2014), <br />available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/03/28/strategy-cut-methane-emissions <br />(attached as Exhibit 1). 4 Environmental Protection Agency, Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing <br />Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units, 80 Fed. Reg. 64662 (Oct. 23, 2015). 5 The White House, Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline (Nov. 6, 2015), <br />available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/11/06/statement-president- <br />keystone-xl-pipeline. 6 President Barack Obama, State of the Union (Jan. 12, 2016), available at: <br />https://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu.