New report confirms oil and gas industry’s suffocating reign on public lands

A new report from The Wilderness Society finds that as of January 2025, more than 81% of all BLM-administered lands in the Western United States remain open to oil and gas leasing. This means over 200 million acres of shared public lands are open to the oil and gas industry. 

This new report comes as the Trump administration and their allies in Congress are trying to remove any barriers to oil and gas drilling on public lands. Most concerning is legislation from Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) that would mandate that all 200 million+ acres of public lands are offered for lease to oil and gas companies on a quarterly basis.  

Proponents of these policies claim that they will lower energy prices for consumers, but there is no evidence that more giveaways to the industry – including lopsided leasing and production incentives on public lands – would reduce gas prices or heating bills.  

Kim Stevens, The Wilderness Society’s Climate Advocacy Director, made the following statement:  

“Oil and gas companies have a stranglehold on our national public lands and how they are managed. The communities living next door to fossil fuel development in the West know this all too well.  

Measures that make fossil fuel companies pay a fairer share for extracting public resources, cover the cost of clean-up and restoration after drilling is finished, limit participation of bad actors and put guardrails on what lands are offered for oil and gas leasing, are critical -- even more so now, knowing the Trump administration has no interest managing public lands on behalf of the public’s interest, despite being required by law to do so.  

Instead, the administration plans on digging the country deeper into fossil fuel dependency while padding the pockets of oil and gas execs and taking aim at the very places that provide us clean air, water, and a place to hike, camp, hunt, and play. We can’t let that happen.  

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.” 

To speak with The Wilderness Society's policy experts, contact edenny@tws.org