The Trump administration’s efforts to boost the U.S. oil and gas industry resulted in a 55 percent increase in permits to drill on public lands in just under a year.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management approved 5,742 permits to drill between Jan. 20, 2025 — the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term — and Jan. 6 of this year, according to data from the agency.
That dwarfs the 3,696 approvals issued over the comparable period in 2024-2025 under former President Joe Biden. BLM also held 22 lease sales in 2025, leasing some 328,000 new acres of public land across 10 states for oil and gas development.
“As promised, the Trump Administration has cut burdensome, unnecessary red tape and approved permits at record speed to unleash American energy,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement Friday. “President Trump’s energy dominance agenda is restoring the ability for oil and gas companies to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’ which why gas prices have hit a new multi-year low.”
