PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S7772-7773)
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Nov 4, 2015
Keep It in the Ground Act of 2015
This bill states as U.S. policy that: (1) federal land and waters should be managed for the benefit of the people of the United States to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change and to promote a rapid transition to a clean energy economy; and (2) the government should pursue management of federal land and waters for the benefit of the people of the United States by not issuing any new lease or renewing any nonproducing lease for coal, oil, or natural gas in any such land or waters.
The bill amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit the Department of the Interior from issuing a new lease, renewing, reinstating, or extending any nonproducing lease under such Act, or issuing any other authorization for the exploration, development, or production of oil, natural gas, or any other fossil fuel in the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, or any other area of the outer Continental Shelf.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Interior shall: (1) cancel any lease issued under such Act before the date of enactment of this Act in the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, or Chukchi Sea; and (2) not conduct any lease sale, enter into any new lease, reoffer for lease any land covered by an expiring lease, or renew, reinstate, or extend any nonproducing lease in existence before such date for onshore fossil fuels, including coal, oil, tar sands, oil shale, and gas on land subject to the Mineral Leasing Act.
Interior may exempt any provision of this Act if it determines that there is an imminent national security threat and that issuing an exemption would significantly reduce such threat, but only for as long as the threat persists.
Interior may allow a nonproducing lease to be renewed or extended if: (1) the nonproducing lease contract was signed before enactment of this Act, and (2) Interior determines that giving effect to any provision of this Act is likely to lead to a court ruling that there was a material breach of the contract. Such a renewal or extension shall be for the shortest time practicable under the terms of the contract.
People & committees
Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] · D–OR
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S7772-7773)
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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