‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ is Back: Federal Oil, Gas Permits Soar Under Trump
This policy has contributed to the lowest gas prices in years in most of the nation. Laughably, California faces prices much high than the average.
“Drill, baby, drill” was the prime plank in Donald Trump’s platform when he ran for president.
It’s back, as oil and gas permitting has increased sharply in Trump’s second term, with federal drilling approvals and lease sales on public lands and offshore areas accelerating over the last year and continuing to surge in recent months.
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.”
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) webpage indicates Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has approved roughly 60% more federal and Indian drilling permits than the previous administration, highlighting rapid Applications for Permit to Drill processing as part of “energy dominance.”
Under President Trump, Secretary Burgum’s Department of Interior has approved 63.7 percent more Federal and Indian drilling permits compared to his predecessor over the same period at this point in their presidencies. The BLM approved 6,027 new oil and gas permits and has approved more Applications for Permits to Drill than in any other year over the past 15 years.
President Biden held no oil and gas lease sales during 2021, his first year in office. Under President Trump, the BLM held 22 lease sales within 2025. Currently, there are more than 21.3 million acres of BLM-managed lands under lease for oil and gas development and production, Between Jan. 20 – Dec. 31, 2025, the bureau held 22 lease sales and generated over $356.6 million (more revenue than in all four years of the Biden administration combined!) by leasing 369 parcels totaling 328,000 acres across 10 states (Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming).
The Trump Team certainly spent 2025 surging American energy production, which was helped along when the BLM scrapped the requirement to prepare environmental impact statements for about 3,224 oil and gas leases covering 3.5 million acres in seven Western states. At the same time, the agency also streamlined the leasing process on public lands and updated its commingling rules to make it easier to measure and process oil and gas from multiple sources in
In October, the agency issued a new record of decision reopening 1.56 million acres of the Alaska Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing, reversing the Biden administration’s 2024 plan that had limited development to the statutory minimum. Legal Insurrection readers will recall that the BLM rescinded the Biden-era 2024 rule for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and approved an updated Integrated Activity Plan that reopened nearly 82% of the 23‑million‑acre reserve to oil and gas leasing.
This approach is contributing to the drop in fuel prices. Gasoline prices have fallen to their lowest level in years…in most parts of the country.
The new year begins with the lowest national average in years at $2.81. The last time the national average for a gallon of regular gas was this low was back in March of 2021. Crude oil prices remain relatively unchanged from the end of 2025 and unaffected amid questions about Venezuela’s impact on the oil market. Currently, the global oil supply is strong, as OPEC+, the coalition of oil-exporting countries, says it’s not planning any production hikes in the first quarter of 2026 due to lower demand.
California drivers, on the other hand, are paying $3.77 per gallon for their fuel and are bracing themselves for even higher prices as refineries begin to close.
Gas prices continue to plummet nationwide. Now FOURTY THREE U.S. states feature average gas prices under $3/gallon! pic.twitter.com/vaAAhuwcX9
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 12, 2026
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Comments
Power generation is the issue. States are still preventing new power plants from being built while shuttering coal plants. Electricity prices are soaring. Its a real problem. The demand is coming from data centers. We can pull ten trillion cubic feet of gas from the ground, wont make a difference until the mid atlantic build about a dozen and a half new base load power plants.
PA and WV are loaded with nat gas. But NY lefties blocking pipeline construction?
Also VA and MD lefties. And its not just blocking pipelines. Its the power plant construction, too.
Yep. The chronic lack of generation capacity build out and deliberately shutting down coal, nuke plants in some areas is coming one to roost. I’ve seen several attempts of d/prog to shift the narrative and put blame on Trump for rising electricity prices despite the fact that the policies enacted by State level d/prog and demanded by woke climate crusaders brought this reckoning.
Hmmmm any federal land that can be leased to power companies for new power plants or would that run afoul of congress or some state regulation or three.
It’s not just that, though you do have a point, and that is a big part of it. Some States are doing some really stupid things though, that cause power bills to go way up, that have nothing to do with Data centers. One good example is my State, Maine. We have something called CMP, or Central Maine Power, and my understanding from some of the people that actually work there is that we are among the top 5 highest billed people in New England. The reason for this is solar farms and people’s houses where they install solar panels to help them with their power bills. We are subsidizing that when we pay our power bill, but we get no benefit from it at all, so why the heck are we paying for it in our power bill?
We recently dodged a big bullet as they wanted to ad to our power bill, I forget just how much each year over a 5 year period, and at the end of that 5 years we would (residential customers) would be paying an additional $535 per year on our power bills on average. So many people that came out and screamed bloody murder about this that the Energy Commission did not allow this to pass.
Since we’re pumping so much oil, let’s refill the National Petroleum Reserve that the Alzheimers sufferer foolishly allowed to be drawn down.
.
That’s the plan as prices drop. One hang up is the caverns where it was stored weren’t really designed for ebb/flow of various WH Admin draining it. It was designed as a strategic storage for use in a no kidding shortage caused by war or some equivalent calamity not to release it in order to temporarily reduce fuel prices based on base polling numbers. IOW they may have to do some reengineering before refill and/or find new storage sites.
yes we know
the lefty msm has been complaining about low gas prices now …again
they are two faced pos
the extol the greatness of obama an dlow oil prices…which he had nothing to do with but dont care that fjb dems wouldnt let trump buy oil at 26/bbl but fjb bought at 70+
drill baby drill
I got a new sensation
“Now FOURTY THREE U.S. states feature average gas prices under $3/gallon! ”
And with no difficulty, I’m sure we can name those 7 states with higher gas prices.
Alaska and Hawai’i of course, due to distance, but CA, WA, OR, NV, PA , VT are in love with their gas taxes.
Overall in the country the power grid wiring needs to be upgraded. In all states the use of solar and wind farms needs to end being built. The push needs to be for Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, and Oil Plants need to be built but in many states there is groups that fight to delay them.
Oil and Natural Gas production in the country needs to happen with added refineries being built. California and the West Coast is having refineries shut down due to regulations by the states, and it will cause problems for fuel in the Western States.
Pipelines are limited in California, Oregon, AZ, NV, and parts of WA. This is leading to a crisis in the Western States with fuel.
I’d add that the build out of new generation capacity and grid upgrades should be focused on hardening the grid with decentralization and away from large interconnected regions. Break it up into smaller regions, at least a dozen in lower 48. Especially considering the unwillingness in some States to generate their own electricity. Sure as heck no transmission lines across multiple State lines to supply them what they refuse to generate. Frankly I’d argue every State should be generating 90% of its base load and every Congressional District at least 50% of its demand. If that’s a problem for huge, over built mega metros tough cookies. Let them figure out how to make their net zero BS actually deliver power. For these huge demand data centers…the only real solution is for them to locate where spare generation capacity exists and/or generate their own/pay for the additional generation plant they require.
TN average is 2.40/gallon. We are in the top 10 for cheapest. Oh- are roads and bridges are just fine… unlike Washington (see Fairfax bridge) which has been decaying for decades under gargantuan gas taxes and 3 hour commutes due to congestion.
Oh and TN is going noooooooooo cleeeee earrrr.
woot woot.
I am glad for the drilling and hope we become petroleum-independent again, and stay that way.
It is too bad, but I think it is just too late for coal generation. It’s still the cheapest and the latest technology makes it quite clean, but it takes much too long to build a new good-sized coal plant. Someone else would be in office before one beginning now would be brought on line. Too risky that a liberal would kill it before it started up. And even if they could start one up, they (libs) would shut it down.
I’d like to see one of those oil rigs on the white house lawn just to piss of greenies and the democrats. It doesn’t even have to have a well drilled underneath it.