License to Drill Act Signed: Drillers Pay $12,850 a Permit Thru 2037

Here's a rare thing in Washington: a bill that passed both the House and Senate without a fight, helps drillers, and doesn't cost taxpayers a dime. On Tuesday, President Trump signed the License to Drill Act into law. The new law keeps alive a 20-year-old program called the Permit Processing Improvement Fund (PPIF). Under the PPIF, drillers who want to drill on federal land pay a fee for each drilling permit application, and that money goes to pay the federal workers who process those permits. The program was set to expire on Sept. 30, but now runs through fiscal year 2037. Most of the action is out West. But with the first federal leases in Ohio's Wayne National Forest in nearly a decade now in drillers' hands, it matters a little bit here too.

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