The Keep It in the Ground Act of 2023 would ban the federal government from issuing new fossil fuel leases on federal lands and waters, and would cancel existing oil and gas leases in Arctic waters including the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, and Chukchi Sea within 60 days of enactment. The bill prohibits new leases, renewals, and extensions for coal, oil, natural gas, tar sands, and oil shale on federal lands governed by the Mineral Leasing Act, and prevents new offshore oil and gas leasing in the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific Oceans and Gulf of Mexico. The legislation is based on findings that keeping at least 80 percent of proven fossil fuel reserves in the ground is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change, and that ending new federal fossil fuel leases would prevent 90 percent of potential emissions from those resources. The bill includes narrow exceptions for national security threats and to prevent material breach of contracts signed before enactment. The bill would affect energy companies, states that receive federal lease revenues, and workers in the fossil fuel industry.
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