Next, Porter addressed American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers, stepping aside to tactfully reveal a minivan with “OVRSITE” vanity plates. Sommers is the head of the oil and gas industry’s main trade group, which has lobbied extensively against regulations that would constrain the industry in any way.
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Pressing Sommers on the number of unused acres of public land fossil fuel companies are currently squatting on, Porter ignored his repeated dismissals by casually raising her key fob to open the van’s trunk, revealing a dozen or so massive bags of rice.
“The answer is 13.9 million acres,” she said. “To visualize how much land that is, if each grain of rice was one acre, that would be 479 pounds of rice.”
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The Biden administration put a pause on federal oil and gas leasing earlier this year, and is grappling with how to balance its climate goals going forward. Having the oil and gas industry support a pause and actively engaging in talks on winding down production would be an act of good faith by Big Oil to show it takes the science seriously. After asking each executive in turn if they supported that pause—spoiler alert, none of them did—Porter grabbed an open bag of rice and began dumping it on the ground.
“You already have 13.9 million acres! This is equivalent to Maryland and New Jersey combined. How much more do you need?” she asked. “You have two of our 50 states at a price that makes the Louisiana Purchase look like a rip-off and you’re not even using it. What more do you need? Iowa? Colorado? Virginia?”
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The American public deserves tireless crusaders who fight to protect public lands and hold Big Oil executives accountable. To that end, Porter is an invaluable resource. Not least of her sacrifices is the fact that she will likely be eating white rice and M&Ms with every meal for the next five or so years—a brave contribution to the quest for climate justice. We thank her for her service.