U.S. oil production up, despite changes to federal leasing system 

Despite changes to the federal oil and gas leasing program that upped the cost of drilling on public land, oil and gas production in the U.S. is soaring under the Biden administration. 

U.S. crude oil production has been climbing since Joe Biden came into office and is now nearing record highs, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency projects that oil production will hit a new all-time high next year. Meanwhile, domestic natural gas production has also been hovering around record highs.

While the Biden administration has sought to balance oil and gas leasing with other priorities, such as protecting cultural sites and biodiversity on public lands as well as raising bonding requirements, it has actually approved more permits for drilling on public lands than the Trump administration had over the same period of time. And the United States has also been exporting more crude oil and petroleum products than it has been importing for the past 22 months. 

This record production isn't impacting prices at the pump though, largely due to OPEC, which has doubled down on production cuts in the past year. The price of a gallon of regular gas at the pump, on average, rose from about $3.45 in January of this year to $3.80 at the beginning of October, according to the EIA.

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Quote of the day

This river is our lifeline. It’s our mother. It’s what feeds us. It’s the foundation to our people, for our culture... Seeing the restoration of our river, our fisheries, I think is going to uplift us all.”

—Annelia Hillman, a traditional food coordinator for the Yurok Tribe, on the Klamath River, Los Angeles Times

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