The Biden administration’s proposed onshore oil and gas leasing rule is a common-sense, widely supported, and long overdue action that will reduce conflict between oil and gas and other uses of our public lands that are essential to supporting Westerners’ way of life: open land, hunting, fishing, recreation, renewable energy, and conservation.
For too long, the broken federal oil and gas leasing program has prioritized the oil and gas industry’s vision for our public lands, threatening wildlife, clean air and water, and Western communities, while short-changing taxpayers and all who use and cherish the nation’s public lands.
A whopping 90 percent of the public lands and minerals in the West overseen by the nation’s largest federal land manager, the Bureau of Land Management, are open to oil and gas leasing. That’s more than 192 million acres – an area roughly the size of Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming combined – that could be tied up in oil and gas leases for decades to come.
Our communities are counting on the Biden administration to listen to the public and finalize the strongest possible reforms as soon as possible to protect taxpayers, support wildlife, and ensure that our public lands and minerals are better managed to benefit all uses, not just oil and gas development.