Because of the energy bill …
The Department of the Interior is taking steps to dramatically increase energy production from our federal lands in an environmentally sound manner.
According to the “Inventory of Oil and Gas on Federal Lands” report released in 2003, the Rocky Mountain Region is considered to have the largest untapped onshore natural gas reserves in the country. The estimates of 138 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on Federal lands in the Interior West is sufficient to heat all of the 55 million homes that use natural gas in the United States for 39 years.