Oil and Gas Leasing; Geothermal Resources Leasing; Coal Management; Management of Solid Minerals Other Than Coal; Mineral Materials Disposal; and Mining Claims Under the General Mining Laws

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is issuing this final rule to amend its mineral resources regulations to increase certain fees and to impose new fees to cover BLM's costs of processing documents relating to its minerals programs. The new fees include costs of actions such as environmental studies performed by BLM, lease applications, name changes, corporate mergers, lease consolidations and reinstatements, and other processing-related costs. BLM established some fixed fees and some fees on a case-by-case basis. BLM based these fee changes on statutory authorities, which authorize us to charge for our processing costs, and on policy guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) requiring BLM to charge these fees. This rule also responds to recommendations issued in audit reports by the DOI's Office of Inspector General (OIG). The final rule also reflects changes to the proposed rule required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.