Because compromising the agency's stewardship over the public lands of the West is not acceptable, charging oil and natural gas companies a fee of $4,000 seems to us a sensible way to help the BLM shoulder the added burden of processing drilling applications. Unfortunately, Utah's Sen. Orrin Hatch doesn't see it that way.

His amendment to the Energy Bill killed a fee plan proposed by the BLM that would have generated $23.5 million. Those funds could have helped BLM offices end the unseemly practice of allowing consultants hired by the gas and oil companies to do the agency's environmental assessments, expediting the application-review process.

The fee would have recouped for taxpayers a miniscule bit of the $2.6 billion in tax breaks the Energy Bill gives oil and gas companies, already some of the wealthiest in America.

Protecting the environment is part of the BLM's basic job description. A Government Accountability Office report says the crush of drilling applications has forced the agency to choose between processing them and meeting its goals to enforce environmental regulations.

The two largest BLM offices, in Buffalo, Wyo., and in Vernal, have met their goals only once in the past six years. The Vernal office alone expects more than 1,000 applications this year. Nationally, the number more than tripled, from 1,803 to 6,399, between 1999 and 2004.

The glut of applications suggests that some companies are taking a shotgun approach to drilling, getting permits for more wells than they can possibly drill. They also apply far in advance of when they might begin exploration in order to beat the burgeoning competition as oil prices hover near record highs.

Charging a substantial fee for each application might have caused companies to pause and consider whether the possibility of finding a productive well in a particular area is worth the cost.

Drilling takes a toll on public lands, and companies have a responsibility to help pay the cost of mitigating that toll. We're disappointed that Sen. Hatch is more concerned with advancing exploration for oil and gas than in ensuring reasonable protection of the lands where these and other resources abide.