How Rising Gas Prices Could Affect Public Lands and Outdoor Recreation

Outside Moab on the ancestral land of the Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute). Photo credit: Jake Nackos.

As gas prices continue to rise, policymakers are debating the best way forward, from proposals to increase oil and gas development to shifting toward renewables and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. Major policy changes could have significant implications for the U.S. economy and for outdoor recreation on public lands and waters—either speeding up a transition to clean power and renewable energy, or doubling down on our use of fossil fuels.

In recent weeks, many lawmakers have been calling for increasing oil production in the U.S. Others have been calling for deeper investment in renewable energy and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for national security reasons.

The administration’s ban on Russian oil imports and Russia’s supply of oil and gas to Europe has created volatility in the global oil market. Although the U.S. produces more oil than any other country, we also consume more oil than we produce, making us more vulnerable to oil price shocks (as anyone filling up their car lately knows). Many different groups have been seizing on rising oil prices and the conflict in Ukraine to pursue their agendas. A number of legislators have proposed increasing oil and gas development on public lands and waters, and Senator Manchin (D-WV) in particular has called for an "all-of-the-above" energy policy to leverage domestic oil production while also investing in renewable energy. The U.S.’s reliance on fossil fuels does have significant national security concerns, and the ban of Russian oil makes it clear that the U.S. needs to move away from its dependence on fossil fuels, for political reasons as well as climate reasons.

However, opening up more public land for oil and gas development isn’t necessarily the solution. The Biden administration has approved more oil and gas lease permits than Trump did at the end of his administration and right now, oil and gas companies are sitting on around 9,000 unused oil and gas leases—places where they have the opportunity to develop but are not. An additional consideration is that the time horizon for any of these policies is not immediate. Even if the U.S. opened up more land to development (beyond the thousands of current leases companies are sitting on), it would be years before we would see an impact on production and prices from new lease sales.

While oil and gas development is one of the many uses of public lands and waters, it often represents a direct conflict to conservation values and to outdoor recreation access. The outdoor industry employs more Americans than the oil and gas industry, and with outdoor recreation participation on the rise, it’s critical that we consider the short and long-term effects of increasing oil production on public lands.

We also know that the window is shrinking for climate solutions and we have the opportunity now to invest in renewable energy that would reduce dependence on fossil fuels. We can take the urgency to create policy solutions and direct that toward vetted policy ideas, including many of the investments in Build Back Better that will address climate resilience, invest in renewables, and make it easier for Americans to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. 

Oil and gas development can greatly affect our experiences on public lands and waters, and Outdoor Alliance has been tracking development on public lands through our oil and gas monitoring program for several years, working to protect key landscapes like Slickrock from development. Moving forward, we hope to see legislators take the energy they have to address high gas prices and use that to invest in clean power and renewable energy, transitioning away from fossil fuels to protect Americans, our climate, and our public lands.

You can be a part of encouraging Congress to take real action to address climate change, starting with critical investments that will protect everyone in America from the increasingly serious effects of climate change.