The federal government has opened hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in California for oil and gas drilling as part of a broader effort to strengthen energy independence. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its final decision Friday, allowing oil and gas leases on plots mostly in the Central Valley and parts of the Central Coast. The 725,000 acres of public land in Central California had been off-limits to oil and gas drilling since 2013. The plan, initially announced in May, was part of a Trump administration goal to make the U.S. energy-independent. Environmentalists who successfully blocked the Obama administration from opening the land to drilling criticized the new development.

Source: Fox News October 06, 2019 23:03 UTC