From the beginning, this Administration has shown a commitment to protecting American families at the pump by taking steps to reduce our reliance on foreign oil. In March, the President announced a goal of reducing oil imports by a third by 2025, through a combination of increased domestic production, investment in alternative fuels, and increased efficiency in the vehicles we drive. As the President has made clear, there is no immediate fix for high gas prices. That said there are sensible steps we can take to protect families over the long term. In last week’s weekly address, the President laid out important steps that the Administration is taking to continue to expand responsible and safe domestic oil production. These include a number of sensible, bipartisan ideas that we can act on with existing authority– like directing the Department of the Interior to conduct annual lease sales in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, while respecting sensitive areas; speeding up the evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid and south Atlantic; and creating new incentives for industry to develop their unused leases both on and offshore. About 57 percent of leased onshore acres and over 70 percent of leased offshore acres are currently inactive, and last year, of the nearly 37 million offshore acres offered for lease by the Federal government, only 2.4 million acres were leased by companies.
Fonte: White House