BLM approved 55% more drilling permits in 2025, cutting environmental reviews

The Bureau of Land Management approved 5,742 oil and gas drilling permits between January 20 and December 31, 2025 — a 55% increase over the 3,696 permits approved during the comparable Biden period. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called it the highest permit approval rate in 15 years. These permits allow oil and gas companies to drill on federal public lands managed by the BLM — land owned collectively by all Americans.

The Trump administration accelerated permitting primarily by compressing environmental review timelines under the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA reviews that previously took months or years now face strict deadlines: environmental assessments must be completed within 14 days, and full environmental impact statements within 28 days. The Interior Department also made most public comment periods optional and limited the scope of environmental effects that must be analyzed.

In 2025, BLM held 22 lease sales opening 328,000 new acres across 10 states (🏔️Colorado, 🎺Louisiana, 🚗Michigan, 🎸Mississippi, 🦌Montana, 🦬North Dakota, 🎰Nevada, 🌶️New Mexico, 🏜️Utah, and 🦬Wyoming) to oil and gas development, generating $356.6 million in revenue. Separately, the administration reopened 1.56 million acres of 🐻Alaska's Coastal Plain — land near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — and nearly 82% of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to drilling.

The One Big Beautiful Bill, passed at Trump's insistence in July 2025, locked in the energy dominance agenda through legislation. The law mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales through 2040, making over 200 million acres of public land available for development. It requires BLM to offer at least 50% of all acreage nominated by oil and gas companies and reduced the royalty rates those companies pay — meaning less revenue per barrel flows back to the federal treasury and to states.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, confirmed 79-18 in January 2025, views public lands as part of America's financial 'balance sheet' — potentially worth trillions in extractable resources. His first secretarial orders directed agencies to ease energy development on federal lands, reinstate leases Biden had canceled, and revisit land management plans. Burgum is a former 🦬North Dakota governor who built a software company fortune before entering politics; North Dakota is one of the nation's largest oil-producing states.

Critics argue the abbreviated NEPA reviews are inadequate to assess environmental impacts. The traditional purpose of NEPA's environmental review process was to force agencies to consider the consequences of their decisions and give the public an opportunity to comment before permits were approved. Conservation groups and tribal nations have sued, arguing 14-day environmental assessments cannot meaningfully evaluate impacts to water sources, wildlife, air quality, and sacred sites.

BLM also scrapped the requirement to prepare environmental impact statements for approximately 3,224 oil and gas leases covering 3.5 million acres in seven Western states — effectively bypassing the most rigorous level of NEPA review for a large swath of the existing lease portfolio. The agency simultaneously eliminated the public notification requirement for some categories of drilling permits, meaning communities near drilling sites may not be informed before permits are approved.

The drilling surge is happening despite uncertain economics. While more permits mean more potential extraction, oil prices fluctuate, and not all approved permits result in actual drilling — companies drill when it's profitable, not merely because permits exist. The Center for Western Priorities noted that even during a government shutdown in late 2025, BLM continued approving more than 600 drilling permits per month, prioritizing fossil fuel development while other government functions were suspended.