I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8802 
To require the Secretary of the Interior and the Chief of the Forest Service 
to align management of public lands and waters with the President’s 
greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022 
Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. PORTER, 
Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. LEVIN of California, and Mr. MCEACHIN) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Re-
sources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period 
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of the Interior and the Chief of 
the Forest Service to align management of public lands 
and waters with the President’s greenhouse gas emission 
reduction goals, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Public Lands and Waters Climate Leadership Act of 
2022’’. 
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is the following: 
Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Public lands and waters energy and climate policy. 
Sec. 3. Alignment of Federal fossil fuel development with climate change tar-
gets. 
Sec. 4. Emissions reduction strategy for public lands and waters. 
Sec. 5. Climate test screening tool and conditions. 
Sec. 6. Online publication of greenhouse gas emissions. 
Sec. 7. Accounting for carbon pollution in fossil fuel fiscal terms. 
Sec. 8. Definitions. 
SEC. 2. PUBLIC LANDS AND WATERS ENERGY AND CLIMATE 
POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States that— 
(1) the United States should aggressively re-
duce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve the Biden 
administration’s climate change commitments which 
align with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change (IPCC) pathway for a 66-percent chance of 
avoiding 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, and should 
harness the full potential of America’s public lands 
and waters to help deliver on these critical emission 
reduction goals; 
(2) public lands should be managed to rapidly 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and co-pollutant 
emissions and to respond to unavoidable impacts of 
climate change through increased resilience of eco-
systems and wildlife habitats; 
(3) the protection of ocean ecosystems is vital 
to promoting ocean health and increasing resilience 
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to climate change, and conservation of United States 
marine resources is one of the best ways to remove 
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; 
(4) energy development and production deci-
sions on public lands and oceans should be guided 
by the goals of— 
(A) protecting human well-being, biodiver-
sity, and the environment for present and fu-
ture generations; 
(B) avoiding the most harmful impacts of 
climate change; 
(C) promoting a rapid, sustainable, just, 
and equitable transition to a clean energy econ-
omy; and 
(D) preserving natural carbon storage 
sinks; 
(5) Tribal nations and environmental justice 
communities are more vulnerable to the direct and 
indirect effects of emissions from public lands and 
oceans and often have the least resources to re-
spond; thus, they should be meaningfully engaged in 
government decision making as our Nation reduces 
emissions from public lands and oceans and builds 
its climate resilience against the effects of those 
emissions; 
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(6) achieving 2030, 2035, and 2050 United 
States greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets 
established by the Biden administration are critical 
to prevent the worst impacts of climate change from 
occurring; and 
(7) the Secretary of the Interior holds existing 
expansive legal authority to reduce or eliminate fos-
sil fuel leasing and production, and otherwise reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions from public lands and 
waters and address climate change, including Article 
IV, section 3, clause 2 or the Constitution (com-
monly referred to as the ‘‘property clause’’), the 
Mineral Leasing Act, the Outer Continental Shelf 
Lands Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Man-
agement Act of 1976. 
SEC. 3. ALIGNMENT OF FEDERAL FOSSIL FUEL DEVELOP-
MENT WITH CLIMATE CHANGE TARGETS. 
The Secretary— 
(1) shall manage public lands and waters to 
minimize and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and 
adapt to climate change; and 
(2) may not hold new lease sales for coal, oil, 
natural gas, oil shale, or tar sands, or approve new 
fossil fuel permits or infrastructure, until the Sec-
retary, in coordination with the Chief, develops and 
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