In September 2020, the American Petroleum Institute (API) introduced a report addressing the impact of a ban on federal leasing in the United States. Their analysis explains the burdens that a leasing and development ban on federal lands and waters could put on the nation’s economy, energy prices, employment and consumerism. To help you further understand how this would impact you and your community, we dove into the report and broke it down.

Currently, energy produced on federal lands accounts for 12 percent of the nation’s natural gas production and 22 percent of U.S. oil production. A ban on leasing and development on these grounds would significantly reduce our production without these valuable reserves. But the negative impacts stretch far beyond the hit that the industry will take.

For starters, the nation’s energy security would significantly decrease with the placement of a ban. Restricting federal leasing would cause natural gas and oil production to decrease by 6 and 13 percent, respectively. While this may not seem significant at first glance, the effects could be devastating. With less production on our home turf, the United States would end up paying more than $500 billion to foreign energy suppliers on net imports.

The full story can be read here.