An area of protected land larger than California could be at risk from fossil fuel development, as the Trump administration looks to ramp up drilling on federal lands – according to a new investigation by Unearthed.

Across the United States, 120 million acres of land protected by the federal government sits above known and potential reserves of oil, gas and coal – including huge swathes of the nation’s parks; wildlife refuges and forests.

Unearthed can further reveal that – in previously unreported comments – Trump administration energy advisor, Vincent DeVito, said the government is focusing on opening up more lands “than ever before” to energy development.  

The news comes after President Trump travelled to Utah on Monday to announce a huge reduction in the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments – which will be cut by 85% and 50% respectively.

A previous investigation by Unearthed found that 2 million acres of these monuments lie above fossil fuel deposits.

In an effort to boost energy development the Trump administration has also:

  • Put forward proposals – voted through by Senate Republicans on Friday – to open up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling.
  • Looked at “restoring the balance” in the way multiple-use lands are managed – a category that includes national forests – towards increased fossil fuel extraction.
  • Announced a review of Obama-era rules that toughened up oversight of oil and gas operations inside national parks, whilst overseeing an “explosion” of leasing along park borders.

Responding to the investigation, Nada Culver, senior counsel at The Wilderness Society, said: “This report shows how many places could be destroyed by an administration hellbent on turning over as much of our public lands as possible to oil, gas and coal companies. With the recent efforts to open national monuments and even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and mining, this analysis paints a sobering picture of what could come next.”

Mapping

Unearthed mapped the overlap between every protected park in the US and potentially major reserves of oil, gas and coal.

The analysis shows how much protected land – and which iconic landscapes – could be affected by the Trump administration’s goal of opening up more land for energy development than ever before.

Some highly protected areas may simply see rules around existing drilling weakened, or more drilling taking place on the borders of the parks.

What we’re doing is unlocking tools from the shed that have been put away for the past 10-12 years

In other areas – such as forests and grasslands – more leases could be issued for new drilling and rules on those leases softened.

There is also the possibility that the administration follows the example of Bears Ears; Grand Staircase Escalante and ANWR and seeks to open up areas through executive order or Congress.

Unearthed found that famous landscapes such as Canyonlands national park in Utah; Gunnison national forest in Colorado; and the Dakota Prairie grasslands, could all be impacted by the new administration’s stance because they sit atop substantial fossil fuel reserves.

Sources: US Geological Survey; US Energy Information Administration; Alaska Department of Natural Resources (see below)

How to use the map

The map shows all lands protected by the federal government in green – there is a drop-down menu which allows you to search some key protection categories, such as national parks or wildlife refuges. You can also turn the various fossil fuel layers on and off so that you can view only coal, or oil and gas fields. The fossil fuel layers are:

  • Coal fields  
  • Major oil and gas fields – also known as plays – where resources are more certain as they are based on data from drilled wells
  • Major sedimentary basins which – according to the US energy department – are areas where oil and gas reserves could be discovered.

Vast threat

The US government owns 640 million acres of land – largely in western states. Most of this is not protected and can be leased to energy companies or cattle ranchers.

But there are also millions of acres where development is banned or severely restricted.

The various forms of protection range from wilderness – defined by Congress as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man” – to national forests and grasslands, where habitat protection; hiking and hunting are balanced with natural resource extraction.

 

Some areas, such as wilderness, are unlikely to be targeted by the administration.

But national monuments were subject to a wide-ranging and controversial review – resulting in the changes announced by Trump in Utah on Monday.

National parks, wildlife refuges; forests and grasslands are also seeing their protections reduced as the administration pursues its goal of energy dominance.