The Keep It in the Ground Act of 2024 would prohibit the federal government from issuing any new leases or renewing existing non-producing leases for coal, oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels on federal lands and waters. This applies to onshore federal lands governed by the Mineral Leasing Act and offshore areas including the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. The bill also requires the Secretary of the Interior to cancel within 60 days any existing leases in the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, and Chukchi Sea. The legislation includes narrow exceptions for national security threats and to prevent breach-of-contract claims for leases signed before the bill's enactment. The bill is based on findings that keeping at least 80 percent of proven fossil fuel reserves in the ground is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and asserts that ending new federal fossil fuel leases would prevent emissions equivalent to 90 percent of potential emissions from federal resources.
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