Roughly a quarter of all crude oil and more than a tenth of all natural gas was produced on territory owned by the federal government last year. Though offshore natural gas production has dwindled in recent years, crude oil production on public lands has increased.
While energy production has increased on federal lands, the total amount of land leased to oil and gas developers has gone down since 2008. More than half of all land leased to oil and gas companies remains unused for production.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 promotes domestic energy production in some specific ways. One provision is a requirement making new leases of federal territory for wind and solar energy dependent on offering federal leases for oil and gas producers.
