GAO Reports by the Numbers: Natural Resources and Environment
From environmental issues to agriculture to radioactive substances, our Natural Resources and Environment team reports on topics that impact the natural world around us, the food we eat, and the disposal of nuclear waste, among other things.
To get a better idea of the breadth of the issues we look at, here’s a roundup of facts from some recent reports. For more details on each fact, click on the answer to go to the original report.
As of March 2018, how many barrels of crude oil were held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—the world’s largest government-owned stockpile of emergency crude oil? (665 million barrels)
How much of DOE’s work is accomplished through contracts? (About 90 percent of its $30 billion annual budget)
How many gallons of radioactive waste is the Department of Energy responsible for treating or disposing? (About 90 million gallons)
How much does DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration plan to spend to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile over the next 10 years? ($107.8 billion)
How many people are sickened each year by Salmonella and Campylobacter—two foodborne pathogens—in the United States? (Approximately 2 million)
Since 2005, how much has the federal government spent on disaster assistance –a key source of federal fiscal exposure expected to increase as extreme weather events intensify and become more frequent? (About $430 billion)
In 2017, how much timber was sold from federally-managed forests? (About $253 million)
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