The License to Drill Act, also known as H.R.7831, passed the U.S. House of Representatives this week, the Congress.gov website showed.
A version of the Act engrossed in the House on June 2, which was hosted on the Congress site, outlined that the purpose of H.R.7831 is “to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to extend the period of time during which the Secretary of the Interior is required to collect a fee for each new application for a permit to drill, and for other purposes”.
According to a summary of the Act on the site, this bill “extends through FY2037 the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) authority to collect oil and gas permit processing fees”.
“For each new permit application, BLM collects a fee that is transferred to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund. (Under current law, the fees are authorized through FY2026),” the summary added.
The bill still needs to pass the Senate and go to U.S. President Donald Trump to become law, the site shows.
In a statement sent to Rigzone this week, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) described the bill as “key”.
“The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill to support federal employees working on oil and natural gas approvals in Bureau of Land Management offices across the West,” the IPAA noted in its statement.
The IPAA highlighted that H.R. 7831 “reauthorizes the bipartisan Permit Processing Improvement Fund (PPIF) and funds BLM field offices overseeing leasing, permitting and production”, warning that the program is set to expire in September “if Congress does not get a bill to President Donald Trump in time”.
In its statement, the IPAA highlighted that the PPIF was created in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 as a pilot program.
“Following 10 years of success, Congress renewed it for an additional 10 years and expanded the program,” the IPAA said.
“Authorization to use drilling permit fees to fund portions of the PPIF expires in September,” it added.
The IPAA noted in its statement that Congress prioritized funding for high-volume BLM offices to support federal and tribal oil and natural gas activities. It said the PPIF supports BLM staff working on approvals for oil and natural gas activities, including permits, rights of way, environmental analysis, sundry notices, and surface use plans. The money is also used for interagency coordination with other federal agencies, staff hiring, and training, the IPAA highlighted.
“H.R. 7831 reauthorizes a longstanding policy that is an important framework for federal land producers,” IPAA Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Dan Naatz said in the statement.
“IPAA has championed this concept since its origins in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and proudly testified in support of the bill during its committee hearing earlier this year,” he added.
“The PPIF program has garnered bipartisan support in both the House and Senate in previous reauthorizations because the concept is sound – industry pays its own way,” he continued.
“Extending the program preserves an industry-funded permitting system with a fee that is indexed to inflation, designed to improve agency resources, and reduce permitting delays. We applaud Rep. Kennedy’s leadership and look to the Senate to follow suit,” he went on to state.
In another statement sent to Rigzone this week, the American Exploration & Production Council praised the House passage of the License to Drill Act, describing the PPIF as “an essential program that collects fees on Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) on federal lands and uses the proceeds to fund permitting processing by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field staff”.
In this statement, AXPC CEO Anne Bradbury said, “AXPC welcomes House passage of the License to Drill Act and commends Rep. Mike Kennedy and the House Natural Resources Committee for moving this legislation forward”.
“At a time when investment in federal lands is reaching historic levels, ensuring BLM has the resources needed to process permits efficiently is critical to securing energy affordability,” Bradbury added.
“This bill strengthens permitting certainty, supports American energy production, and helps ensure taxpayers fully realize the economic benefits of responsible development on federal lands. We encourage the Senate to act quickly to pass this critical legislation,” Bradbury continued.
In a statement posted on the Western Energy Alliance website commenting on the House passage of the bill, Melissa Simpson, President of the Alliance, said, “the Permit Processing Improvement Fund is 100 percent paid for by fees on oil and natural gas drilling permits”.
“It’s a balanced approach that Congress created to develop energy resources on public lands while supporting the federal employees who manage the process. Their roles are important because 10 percent of the oil and natural gas produced in the United States comes from BLM public lands,” Simpson added.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress may not agree on much at the moment, but there’s strong agreement on extending support for the federal employees who perform the daily work that goes into managing oil and natural gas production,” Simpson added.
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