This week, Senator Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced a bill to tackle the problem of speculative leasing in the federal oil and gas program that ties up millions of acres of public land from other uses. Current policies allow speculators and oil and gas companies to guide which federal lands get put up for lease and then hold onto leases for incredibly cheap without ever producing oil and gas or generating returns to the public. The new measure is a good step toward ensuring the federal oil and gas program serves the owners of federal land and the resources in them – American taxpayers.