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President Donald Trump wants to lease more public lands for oil and gas drilling, but a new report from The Wilderness Society found that 81 percent of all Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in the Western United States are already open to oil and gas leasing.
The report, Open for Drilling, says that public lands are vital for recreation, cultural heritage, wildlife conservation, and climate resilience. But the continued exploitation of public lands through oil and gas drilling puts these values at risk.
Under federal law, the BLM must manage national public lands for multiple uses, such as energy development, recreation, grazing, and conservation. But with only 19 percent of BLM lands off limits to oil and gas development, there seems to be a sharp imbalance among uses.
“Oil and gas companies have a stranglehold on our national public lands and how they are managed,” said Kim Stevens, The Wilderness Society’s Climate Advocacy Director, in a statement. “We must throw everything we have at taking public lands and waters back from polluters, stopping the sell-off of our public lands to the highest bidder and making them truly serve the public interest.”
Public polling shows that 72 percent of Westerners, including a majority of self-identified MAGA supporters, prefer their elected officials to place more emphasis on conserving public lands over maximizing the amount of national public lands available for oil and gas production.
Why is the BLM still holding lease sales in Nevada?
In a new blog post, Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein explains that despite there being little interest from the oil and gas industry in drilling in Nevada, the Bureau of Land Management continues to offer public land for lease. Kathleen Sgamma, President Trump's nominee for BLM director, once stated “the oil industry’s actual interest in Nevada is very small.” Read the full blog post here. |
It is impossible to be a fan of Theodore Roosevelt and not to be a fan of conservation at large.”
