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The Center for Western Priorities (CWP) has released an interactive report examining the millions of acres of idle leases stockpiled by the oil and gas industry. The report finds that the industry is currently sitting on 9.9 million acres of idle leases across ten Western states—47.4 percent of all leases in the region. These stagnant leases lock up valuable public land from proactive management for other uses, like recreation or conservation, while producing no energy and generating only $1.50 per acre for taxpayers annually.
In January, President Biden ordered a pause on new federal oil and gas leases while the Interior Department evaluates the impact of America’s public lands drilling program on our climate, communities, and taxpayers. This commonsense first step begins a long-overdue process of reform for the current broken, century-old leasing system and does not prevent operators from continuing to drill using existing idle leases.
CWP Policy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn says, “The oil and gas industry is well aware that the current leasing system is tilted in their favor, and they’ve spent millions on lawyers and lobbyists to keep it that way. As this analysis shows, their recent campaign against President Biden’s commonsense leasing pause is nothing more than a disingenuous ploy to prevent a broken system from being fixed.”
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The federal government has long broken promises to Native American tribes who have been on this land since time immemorial. With her appointment, Congresswoman [Deb] Haaland will help me strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship.”
