-- A review of federal records shows that nearly three-fourths of the public land leased for oil and gas development in the continental U-S isn't producing any oil or gas.
That, even as the Bush administration pushes to open more environmentally sensitive public lands for oil and gas development.
Eighty percent of federal lands leased for oil and gas production in Wyoming are producing no oil or gas. Neither are 83 percent of the leased acres in Montana or 77 percent in Utah.
The findings come from an Associated Press computer analysis of Bureau of Land Management records.
The amount of non-producing land leases is nearly 30 (m) million acres.
B-L-M this week plans sell leases to 8-point-8 (m) million acres to oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The reserve lies west of Prudhoe Bay and other North Slope oil fields and in all covers 23-point-5 (m) million acres of public land.