Feds: Much of oil, gas under lands off limits [View All]

[jpak]

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D90Q9RIO0.htm

A new report from the Bush administration says most of the oil and more than 40 percent of the natural gas beneath public lands in the United States are off limits to drilling.

Opening those reserves would give energy companies access to an estimated 19 billion barrels of oil and 95 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, administration officials said Wednesday. That would require Congress to roll back environmental safeguards and lift drilling prohibitions on vast areas -- from Florida to Alaska and across the Rocky Mountain West.

The report, from the Bureau of Land Management, is likely to add to growing political pressure to curb fuel imports and dampen prices by ramping up domestic energy production. But it comes amid a development backlash in some parts of the country, where drilling rigs are blamed for interrupting wildlife migrations, fouling water supplies and marring natural vistas.

"If we want to lower the cost of energy, we must be willing to use our own energy resources as part of a balanced and rational energy policy," said Assistant Secretary of Interior C. Stephen Allred.

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