Bush administration: Domestic sources of energy are off limits

BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — A new report from the Bush administration says most of the oil and more than 40 percent of the natural gas beneath public lands in the United States are off limits to drilling.

Opening those reserves would give energy companies access to an estimated 19 billion barrels of oil and 95 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, administration officials said.

That would require Congress to roll back environmental safeguards and lift drilling prohibitions on vast areas — from Florida to Alaska and across the Rocky Mountain West.

The report, issued on May 21 by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is likely to add to growing political pressure to curb fuel imports and dampen prices by ramping up domestic energy production.

AP