Despite the United States leading the world in oil and gas production, breaking all previous global records, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) has introduced S.460, a bill that would require the government to offer vast amounts (“all available acreage”) of our public lands for oil and gas leasing without any regard for other uses like hunting, fishing, water supply, or wildlife conservation.

In fact, this legislation will specifically allow oil and gas leasing in areas  currently protected for conservation purposes, including critical wildlife habitat, wetlands, and recreational areas.  It also forbids any president from pausing, delaying, deferring or cancelling any lease sale.

Senator Daines’ drill everywhere bill, if enacted, would subvert all other natural resource values and give oil companies carte blanche to exploit our public lands and waters as they see fit, and in doing so, trample over every other user group that utilizes these lands that belong to all of us. As CRS President David Jenkins warns in a recent Flathead Beacon op-ed, Daines’ ‘Drill Everywhere’ Bill Throws Sportsmen Under the Bus, the bill not only betrays those of us who hunt, fish, ride, hike or otherwise use and enjoy our nation’s public lands, it betrays the very outdoor traditions and lifestyles that characterize life in the Western U.S.