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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Federal land access issues threaten activity

Journal Article · · Oil and Gas Journal; (USA)
OSTI ID:6754179

The federal government, largest landowner in the U.S., in the past decade has been increasingly unwilling to lease its lands for oil and gas exploration. Congress has restricted the acreage available for onshore exploration by identifying thousands of acres in the West for possible designation as wilderness. On the outer continental shelf, for the past 9 years legislators have denied the Interior Department funds to plan lease sales in certain areas. The Minerals Management Service, responding to political pressures, has removed 655 million acres from lease sale consideration and delayed many of the sales in the current 5 years leasing program. Meanwhile, some congressmen are pushing bills that would give coastal states some control over OCS leasing and that would ban drilling in areas off all but five of the coastal states.

OSTI ID:
6754179
Journal Information:
Oil and Gas Journal; (USA), Journal Name: Oil and Gas Journal; (USA) Vol. 88:23; ISSN OIGJA; ISSN 0030-1388
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English