Government Revenue Impacts of Federal Western Lands Policy

The decline in oil and gas leasing, permitting, and new drilling on the nation’s public lands since 2009 have come at a high cost to America – namely, a significant loss of domestically produced oil and natural gas, thousands of jobs in the energy-rich western United States, and the forfeit of hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal tax revenues, royalties, and lease payments to western states and the U.S. Treasury.

These are the central findings of this Report: Employment, Government Revenue, and Energy Security Impacts of Current Federal Lands Policy in the Western U.S. The Report analyzes oil and natural gas leasing, permitting, and drilling trends on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the energy-producing western states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The balance of the evidence suggests a systematic decline of energy production activities on the nation’s federal lands in the last two years.

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Employment, Gov't Revenue and Energy Security Impacts of Current Federal Lands Policy in the Western U.S. (January 2012)

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