Natural Resource Accounting: Toward a balance sheet for the Nation

It has long been recognized that the Nation’s economic accounts do not reflect our true wealth, due to the omission of natural resources from the Federal balance sheet. For example, U.S. economic accounts do not account for the 2.3 billion acres of land on which we grow food, build and maintain infrastructure, produce energy and minerals, and recreate. Also excluded are water resources used for irrigation, energy production, mining, recreation, and domestic and industrial supply. The USGS has long assessed and inventoried the nation’s natural resources, drawing on scientific expertise and products from all of its mission areas and regions.

Building on over 70 years of U.S. leadership in developing economic statistics, the USGS and other Federal agencies are in the early stages of a 15-year process to build objective, relevant, and accurate natural resource accounts, seeking parity with the more than 90 other countries that already do such accounting. Fully incorporating the nation’s resources on America’s balance sheet enables the Federal government, industry, and the public to clearly understand and better appreciate how natural resources underpin our economic prosperity.