Oil & Gas Leases on Public Lands Under Obama, Trump, and Biden

What We’re Showing

This graphic shows the number of acres leased on public lands to oil and gas companies during the fiscal years 2013–2023. The data is sourced from the Bureau of Land Management as of October 2023.

Key Takeaways

• The amount of public land leased to the oil & gas sector has varied significantly by administration.

Drill, Baby, Drill

As seen in this chart, land leases increased significantly during the Trump administration compared to the Obama administration.

Then, following a series of executive actions aimed at reducing GHG emissions from federal lands, leases dropped sharply during the Biden administration.

Since Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, Biden has moved to limit oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in anticipation of a repeated expansion in land leases.