Coming Up Dry

Publication Date: July 2008

Publisher: Environmental Working Group

Author(s): Dusty Horwitt

Research Area: Energy; Environment

Keywords: gas; oil; economics

Type: Report

Abstract:

As the White House and some members of Congress call for more domestic oil and gas drilling, federal and industry data show that increased drilling on Western lands under the Bush Administration did nothing to lower the price of gasoline and natural gas or ease U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources.

From 2001 to 2006, drilling on public land in the West increased 75 percent with an average of 7,839 wells drilled per year compared to an annual average of 4,461 from 1993 through 2000. This dramatic increase in drilling has had no effect on the price of gas which jumped from $1.52 a gallon in the Clinton years to $2.01 between 2001 and 2006, on its way to the current average of more than $4.