INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS NINETY-FOURTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H.R. 3265 A BILL TO AMEND THE MINERAL LEASING ACT OF 1920, COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JAMES A. HALEY, Florida, Chairman ROY A. TAYLOR, North Carolina ROBERT W. KASTENMEIER, Wisconsin GOODLOE E. BYRON, Maryland JAIME BENITEZ, Puerto Rico JIM SANTINI, Nevada PAUL E. TSONGAS, Massachusetts ALLAN T. HOWE, Utah JAMES WEAVER, Oregon BOB CARR, Michigan GEORGE MILLER, California THEODORE M. (TED) RISENHOOVER, Oklahoma WRIGHT PATMAN, Texas JOE SKUBITZ, Kansas, Ranking Minority Member SAM STEIGER, Arizona MANUEL LUJAN, JR., New Mexico WILLIAM M. KETCHUM, California ROBERT E. BAUMAN, Maryland JAMES P. (JIM) JOHNSON, Colorado NORMAN WILLIAMS, Staff Consultant NOTE. The chairman of the full committee is an ex officio voting member of this sub- CONTENTS Page Bagge, Carl E., president, National Coal Association_. Bogard, Becky, legislative representative, American Public Power Cannon, James, author of the study entitled, "Leased and Lost," pub- Evans, Hon. Frank E., a Representative in Congress from the State of 166 145 Graham, David B., cooperative counsel, National Rural Electric Co- Holum, Kenneth, general manager, Western Fuels Association, Inc__ 141, 147 10 Kaiser Steel Corp----- 168 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, submitted by David 128 150 Nelson, Thomas C., deputy chief, National Forest System, Department Overton, J. Allen, Jr., president, American Mining Congress- Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co., on need to repeal section 2(c) of Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, plus appendix, extracts from legal study of coal resources on public lands, College of Law, University Letters: Horton, Hon. Jack, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, to Hon. James 4 Muys, Jerome C., of Debevoise & Liberman, Washington, D.C., to Hon. 153 Additional information: Letter and comments from the Atlantic-Richfield Co., Denver, Copy of coal lease U-13097 as part of answer to question 4-g on 33 41 List of holders of existing Federal leases_- 53 Questions prepared by staff and sent to Mr. Horton, with answers sub- 37 FEDERAL COAL LEASING FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1975 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MINES AND MINING OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:55 a.m., in room 2325, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Patsy T. Mink (chairwoman of the subcommittee), presiding. Mrs. MINK. The Subcommittee on Mines and Mining will now convene. We are here for the purpose of taking testimony on H.R. 3265, the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975. As you will recall, the subcommittee met on this legislation last year and had taken the bill up through the final stages of markup. So H.R. 3265 is the final product as it stood in December of 1974. It is not the intention of the Chair to prolong the hearings on this bill but we did want to give principal parties concerned an opportunity to be heard on the bill as it stood at the end of last year. And so we are delighted this morning to welcome Mr. Jack Horton, Assistant Secretary for Land and Water Resources of the Department of the Interior, and we are pleased to have your comments on the pending bill, Mr. Horton. However, before you begin your statement, Mr. Horton, I would like to place in the record the bill H.R. 3265 and the report of the Department of the Interior dated March 13, 1975. Hearing no objection, so ordered. [H.R. 3265 and the report of the Department of the Interior follows:] [H.R. 3265, 94th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To amend the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1975". SEC. 2. The first sentence of subsection 2(a) of the Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 438) as amended (30 U.S.C. 201(a)) is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 2. (a) (1) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to divide any of the coal lands subject to this Act or the deposits of coal, classified and unclassified, owned by the United States, into leasing tracts of forty acres each, or multiples thereof, and in such form as, in his opinion, will permit the most economical mining of the coal in such tracts, and thereafter he shall, in his discretion, upon the request of any qualified applicant or on his own motion, from time to time, offer such lands or deposits of coal for leasing, and shall award leases thereon by competitive bidding (with sealed bids) on a bonus bidding system. Such leases shall be for ten years. No less than 50 per centum of the total acreage offered for lease by the Secretary in any one year shall be leased under a system (1) |