Oil Change International FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Seth Gladstone, Food & Water Watch, sgladstone@fwwatch.org Aisha Dukule, Friends of the Earth US, adukule@foe.org Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org Millions of People, Hundreds of Groups Support Halting Fossil Fuel Leasing & Permitting on Public Lands, Oceans WASHINGTON — Environmental justice, Indigenous, climate and conservation groups from across the country announced today that they have delivered millions of petitions and public comments, and letters from hundreds of organizations, supporting a halt on new fossil fuel leasing and permitting on public lands and oceans. Biden has promised to ‘ban’ new leasing and permitting activities. Calls to ban fracking on federal lands began in began in 2013 and expanded in 2015 to oppose all new fossil fuel leasing. Virtually every acre of federal lands leased for oil and gas by the Trump administration is under some form of legal challenge.