WASHINGTON   –  U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (MO-08) today voted against legislation containing pieces of 172 bills to acquire two million acres of additional public lands and make federal designations costing $10 billion.  The public lands omnibus failed by two votes in a procedure which required the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. House of Representatives for passage.

“I’m relieved we’ve garnered the votes to push back against this effort to expand the land holdings of federal government, which is already the largest landowner in the nation.  Already, the federal government owns roughly 667 million acres of U.S. lands, 29 percent of the total land area of the United States,” Emerson said.

Emerson noted that the bill carried severe ramifications for domestic energy exploration.

“This bill prohibits three million American acres from energy leasing and stops exploration for oil, coal and natural gas at public sites all over the nation.  In Wyoming alone, 331 million barrels of recoverable oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas would have been placed off limits,” Emerson said.  “We have to emphasize domestic energy exploration in the U.S. in order to insulate our country and our economy from price shocks that occur when OPEC nations choke off supplies of oil.”