“What this process has done over the years is allow oil and gas interests to hoard land on the tiny chance they might develop it. During the Trump administration, land virtually given away in noncompetitive leases has more than doubled from 141,000 acres in 2017 to nearly 379,000 in 2018. A report last year by the Center for American Progress found that nearly 3 million acres of land has been purchased with noncompetitive bids in mostly Western states from 2009 to 2018.”
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