The government will now charge a fee to ask about drilling on public land

The Bureau of Land Management is changing its rules for how it handles requests to lease public land for drilling. It will now charge a fee for these requests, a change required by a new law.

Before this, anyone could express interest in drilling on public land for free. This new fee means that only serious bidders will likely make these requests. It adds a small, but real, cost to the very first step of accessing public resources.