After cutting sage-grouse protections, Interior Department moving forward with oil and gas leasing in prime habitat
Mar 26, 2019
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Extractive industries keep leaving toxic messes across the West. Will history continue to repeat itself? The Western United States has a long history of extractive industrial activity. Since the 1800s, westward colonization has both driven and relied upon the extraction of the West’s resources, from furs to timber to gold and other minerals. Extractive activity […]
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In August 2022, Congress overhauled the system for leasing oil and gas on America’s public lands when it passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Many of the updates were long overdue and intended to restore balance to a system that had been rigged in favor of the oil industry for more than a century. After […]
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This dashboard provides an at-a-glance look at federal onshore oil and gas activity under the Biden administration, including statistics from past and upcoming lease sales. This dashboard will be regularly updated.
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When the Biden administration enacted a temporary pause on new oil and gas leases on public lands, the oil industry said the sky was falling, predicting massive job losses and production cuts. In the meantime, drill rig counts increased, stock prices rose, and major oil companies flush with cash began taking steps for their shareholders to reap the benefits. Data from the Bureau of Land Management shows that, despite industry fear mongering, oil companies had nearly 10,000 approved, but unused public lands drilling permits as of 2021, an all-time high in recent memory.
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