Ryanne Pilgeram and co-author publish report on decoupling and public lands
Ryanne Pilgeram from the Wilderness Society, along with co-author Mark Haggerty, recently published a report titled “Decoupling and Public Lands: Ensuring the future of public lands while supporting communities who bear the burden of shifting fossil fuel markets.” The report outlines how Congress should establish a permanent fund to manage natural resource revenue so communities can diversify fossil fuel-reliant economies and keep public lands in public hands. Their work highlights that public lands are economically entwined with fossil fuel extraction, which creates incentives to continue fossil fuel development. However, boom-and-bust revenue cycles from fossil fuel markets harm local budgets. They recommend creating a predictable, stable revenue source for resource communities irrespective of market fluctuations via establishing a permanent resource revenue fund and note that decoupling budgets from annual extraction revenues can reduce political pressure to sell or develop public lands.