Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Oil industry awash in drilling permits despite calls to increase production
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Thursday, March 10, 2022
Oil wells in California | Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])

As Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine intensifies, Americans are increasingly feeling the pain at the pump. Amid rising oil prices, the industry has rolled out its tried and true playbook, calling for opening more public lands to drilling and a rollback of environmental safeguards. However, a new dashboard ([link removed]) from the Center for Western Priorities shows that the oil industry is sitting on more than 12 million acres of idle public lands leases and more than 9,100 approved, but unused, drilling permits.

Brad Handler, a researcher at the Colorado School of Mines, notes that oil companies are not racing ([link removed]) to ramp up production, instead focusing on their balance sheets and stock buybacks. "As we look at 2022," said ([link removed]) Handler, "what the companies have announced to their investors is that that capital discipline will continue, even though it’s becoming more and more obvious to them that oil prices have some substance underneath them and oil and gas prices are not going to simply fall very quickly."

On recent calls with shareholders, executives at the top three companies holding approved, but unused, drilling permits acknowledged ([link removed]) they are focusing on keeping production stable, buying back stock, and increasing dividends. “These companies will argue for throwing open all of public lands to leasing and drilling [and] reducing regulations," said ([link removed]) Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director at the Center for Western Priorities, "and to their shareholders they say they want to look out for their profits and their stock price.”
Quick hits


** Data shows oil companies hold thousands of unused drilling permits while Americans suffer high gas prices
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Yahoo! News ([link removed]) | Reuters ([link removed]) | KRQE ([link removed])


** 5 reasons why the United States can't drill its way to energy independence
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Center for American Progress ([link removed])


** This female conservationist fought to save Joshua Tree as a national park — and won
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Travel+Leisure ([link removed])


** First grizzly bear of the year spotted in Yellowstone National Park
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Jackson Hole News&Guide ([link removed])


** How the West’s megadrought is leaving one Arizona neighborhood with no water at all
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Grist ([link removed])


** Groundwater drilling threatens Arizona with water shortage
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Arizona Daily Sun ([link removed])


** One man's quest to document California's most vulnerable public lands
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SFGate ([link removed])


** Editorial: What’s better than a ban on Russian oil imports? Ending our dependence on fossil fuels
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” President Biden’s announcement Tuesday that the U.S. will ban imports of Russian oil and gas underscores the inherent instability and danger of our reliance on fossil fuels.”
—Los Angeles Times Editorial Board ([link removed])
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** @Interior ([link removed])
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.@USGSLandsat ([link removed]) 9 has collected over 57,000 images of our planet since October, including this incredible image of Anchorage, Alaska.

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