Information about H.R. 4381, 4382, 4383, a trio of bad oil and gas drilling bills. These bills are solutions looking for problems - and if enacted would cause greater problems than they purport to solve. See our fact sheet for more information.
Also included are the letters The Wilderness Society sent to the House Natural Resources Committee about the bills.
Gasoline is expensive, but don’t tell that to Big Oil.
They love the profits from $4 gasoline. Every time the price at the pump goes up another penny, Big Oil increases its profits by $200 million. The oil industry made over $137 billion in profits last year from American’s pain at the pump – and made more than $1 TRILLION in the last 10 years. Annual production is at its highest in 8 years, and even that hasn’t had any effect on prices at the pump. Here’s how the oil companies do it:
Data from the Bureau of Land Management that shows that as of September 30, 2011, the oil and gas industry had more than 7,000 unused Approved Drilling Permits - the final approval needed before beginning to drill for oil or gas.
This map breaks down Alaska's North Slope by sold, deferred, active, and potential leases, as well as Barrow Native Lands and Arctic Slope Regional Corporation Surface and Subsurface Lands.
The oil and gas industry claims that the only way to address our country’s numerous energy issues is to open more public lands and waters to oil and natural gas drilling. What they don’t tell you is that drilling in America is already occurring at an astonishing pace and in a bewildering number of places. The facts below show that “more drilling” won’t solve America’s energy problems.
The oil and gas industry claims that the only way to address our country’s numerous energy issues is to open more public lands and waters to oil and natural gas drilling. What they don’t tell you is that drilling in America is already occurring at an astonishing pace and in a bewildering number of places. The facts below show that “more drilling” won’t solve America’s energy problems.
Data Also Shows Thousands of Idle but Approved Federal Drilling Permits
Although the oil and gas industry and their allies have criticized Obama Administration policies for allegedly restricting the industry’s access to federal lands for drilling, new information released by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in January, 2011 indicates that the oil and gas industry controls 41,186,158 acres of federal onshore lands, but has drilling operations on just 12,205,416 acres of these leases.
On June 24, 2010, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall introduced the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources Act (CLEAR Act). The Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows sent a letter to the Chairman supporting the legislation.
