U.S. to speed approval for oil, gas exploration on federal land

U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday signed an order to hold more lease sales and to speed up approving permits to explore for oil and gas on federal land, a process he said got bogged down under former President Barack Obama. The order is the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump to make it easier to drill and mine on federal land, which Zinke said is a source of income for the government. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is supposed to take 30 days to review applications for permits to drill but Zinke said the average time for processing in 2016 was 257 days. "I'm directing the BLM to conduct quarterly lease sales and address these permitting issues," Zinke said in a statement. "We are also looking at opportunities to bring support to our front line offices who are facing the brunt of this workload." There were 2,802 permit applications pending as of Jan. 31, with three quarters of them filed in five field offices in Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota and New Mexico...more