“The last president to lease out less than 4.4 million acres at this point in the first term of his presidency was Richard Nixon in 1969-1970.”
Yet ANOTHER of Nixon’s ‘gifts’ to the country. Note how 3 years later, pretty much the EXACT amount of time that oil would have flowed from this non-leased land, the Arab Oil Embargo hit. Absolute PERFECT timing.
All by design. With malice aforethought.