The Obama administration today released an updated report indicating that a majority of oil and gas leases on public lands and water continue to go undeveloped, a finding industry groups again blasted as misleading.

While the findings are nearly identical to a report the Interior Department delivered more than a year ago, today's announcement rekindled a debate that has epitomized the partisan divide over domestic energy policy (E&ENews PM, March 29, 2011).

As was the case in 2011, Democrats and conservation groups argued the report undercuts industry claims that the administration is dragging its feet on domestic leasing for oil and gas.

But industry groups said the report shows a continued naiveté about the oil and gas development process and, at worst, is a deliberate misleading of the American public.

Today's report found that nearly 72 percent of the 36 million acres of federal waters leased for oil and gas remain "idle," meaning they are neither producing nor currently subject to approved or pending exploration or development plans. Onshore, 56 percent of leased acres, or 20.8 million acres, remain idle, and more than 7,000 drilling permits remain unused.

"These lands and waters belong to the American people, and they expect those energy supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "We will continue to encourage companies to diligently bring production online quickly and safely on public lands already under lease."

The findings come as the administration pushes a new proposal to govern hydraulic fracturing and greenhouse gas emissions from wells on public lands, in addition to new large-scale drilling projects in the West. Oil and natural gas production has surged nationwide, though most of the increase has occurred on private lands, a distinction Republican critics have sought to highlight.

Interior said the updated findings buttress its decision to revise offshore leasing terms to encourage prompter development, as well as a set of onshore leasing reforms introduced in 2010 to allow "a more orderly, open and environmentally sound process" for offering public lands.

But drilling trade groups accused the administration of concocting an election-year distraction to deflect attention from its refusal to support development in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans; the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and oil shale lands in the Rocky Mountain West.

"It's election-year politics, in our view," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, at an event this morning at the National Press Club. "It's unfortunate that they keep going back to that red herring."

Gerard criticized the report as "oversimplified and misleading" for focusing on leases where companies are actively trying to get approvals to drill.

"It's absurd to contend the industry pays the government billions of dollars every year in bonus bids and rents to leave land idle," Gerard said today in a statement. "It develops leases as expeditiously as it can -- often in the face of inordinate delays the administration's own policies create."

The Interior report defined idle offshore leases as "not producing or not subject to pending or approved exploration or development plans."

But API said the numbers can be misleading. As an example, it pointed to last week's approval of a plan to drill thousands of wells in Utah after a four-year permitting delay.

Democrats today reiterated an argument they've waged for years by calling on Congress to pass legislation that would impose a new fee on leases before they enter development.

"If idle hands are the devil's workshop, idle wells are the oil companies' playthings, left languishing even as Big Oil asks for more taxpayer-owned land," said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who has sponsored such "use it or lose it" legislation. "Perhaps what's needed is a new TV show called 'American Idle,' where Simon Cowell could mock the lack of action taken by oil companies to drill on land they already possess, even as the companies demand to be moved on to the next round of leasing."

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who has sponsored a similar measure in the Senate, said the report "should be a wake-up call that Big Oil is sitting on taxpayer land, boosting their stock prices and sticking it to middle-class families struggling with sky-high gasoline prices." He added, "This land and these waters belong to the American taxpayer, and it's past time we stood up and told these companies: Use it or lose it."

Paul Bledsoe, senior adviser for the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Interior official during the Clinton administration, took a less cynical perspective, arguing that today's report shows the Obama administration continues to be bullish on domestic oil and gas production.

"Both the administration and conservatives on Capitol Hill are vying for the pro-production mantle," Bledsoe said. "They just can't seem to agree on how to get there."

Reporter Elana Schor contributed.