CHAPTER 3 Federal Coal Leases and Preference Right Lease Applications: An Overview

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview

2 Contents Pge History of Lesing * * * * * *. *. * * e. * * * *. * * * * * *. * * * * * * *. * 9. * * * * * e * * * * * * *. * m * 48 Lese Issunce Methods Pending PRLAs *.,...*.,* Lese or PRLA Acquisition Methods Ownership of Leses nd PRLAs.*..*** *.*,****..**...*.*..*..*..*.***** Lese Development Sttus $ Leses With Approved Mine Plns Leses With Pending Mine Plns Leses Without Mine Plns List of Tles Tle No. 6. Extent of Lesing Lesed, Federl, nd Totl Recoverle Col Reserves in the Principl Western Col-Producing Sttes History of Lesing Lese Issunce Method for Existing Leses Extent nd Loction of PRLAs Lese nd PRLA Acquisition Method Used y Present Owner Mjor Business Activity Ctegories Holding Federl Col Leses nd PRLAs in , Numer nd Loction of Leses nd Lese Units., Summry Tle - The Development Sttus of Federl Col Leses Leses in Production nd With Approved Mine Plns nd 1980 Col Production From Federl Leses nd From Western Sttes Leses With PendingMine Plns Leses for Which No Mine Plns Hve Been Sumitted List of Figures Figure No. Pge 15. Numer of Leses, Acrege Under Lese, nd Federl Col Production From 1950 to Pge

3 CHAPTER 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview As of Septemer 30, 1980, there were 565 Federl col leses in 14 Sttes (see tle 6]. Ninety-seven percent of the totl, or 548 leses, re locted in seven Western Sttes: Colordo, Montn, New Mexico, North Dkot, Oklhom, Uth, nd Wyoming. These 548 leses were exmined y OTA in some detil. * Uth hs 204 or 36 percent of ll leses, more thn ny other Stte, Colordo nd Wyoming hve the next lrgest numer of leses, 127 (22 percent) nd 101 (18 percent) respectively, With 20 leses, North Dkot hs the fewest leses mong the seven Sttes studied y OTA. *OTA did not exmine col leses tht hve een relinquished or cnceled nd mde only limited review of leses outside this seven Stte region ecuse of the smll reserves involved. OTA did not study unlesed Federl col. Tle 6. Extent of Lesing (includes ll leses in existence s of Sept. 30, 1980) Recoverle col Numer of Acrege reserves leses under lese (illions of tons) Colordo (22%) (16%) (13%) All percentges re percent of totl Iesing, sums my not dd to 100 Percent ecuse of rounding. The other leses include leses in Alm (2), Alsk (4), Cliforni (1), Kentucky (3), Oregon (3), Pennsylvni (2), nd Wshington (2) SOURCE Off Ice of Technology Assessment, The 565 col leses cover 812,000 cres of Federl lnd, 7 percent of the 11.5 million cres of Federl col lnd clssified s known recoverle col resource res (KRCRA) s defined y the Deprtment of the Interior (DOI) in Mrch Uth, Wyoming, nd Colordo hve mjor proportion of lesed crege with 34, 27, nd 16 percent respectively. North Dkot hs the fewest lesed cres mong the seven principl Sttes studied. OTA estimtes tht 16.5 illion tons of recoverle col reserves re now under lese in the seven Sttes with 97 percent of the leses. Production from these reserves totled 60 million tons in 1979 nd 69 million tons in 1980; in the sme yers, totl U.S. col production ws 776 million tons nd 820 million tons, respectively. Currently lesed Federl reserves re less thn 20 percent of the estimted totl of over 80 illion tons of Federl recoverle col reserves (see tle 7). The percentge of totl Federl col reserves under lese in ech Stte vries from high of 50 percent in Uth to low of 5 percent in Montn nd out 3 percent in North Dkot. The percentges of federlly owned col to the totl known recoverle col reserves in ech Stte vry from under 10 percent in Oklhom to 85 percent in Uth with n verge of out 60 percent for the seven Sttes. * Leses rnge from 40 cres to 20,701 cres. Approximtely 60 leses re under 100 cres nd 4 leses re over 10,000 cres in size. In terms of recoverle col reserves, some smll leses contin negligile mounts of col (i. e., under 10,000 tons) while severl lrge leses contin over one-hlf illion tons of recoverle col. *These percentges represent est ville dt on col reserves nd ownership, ut these dt re incomplete. See footnotes to tle 7. 47

4 48 An Assessment of Development nd Production Potentil of Federl Col Leses Tle 7. Lesed, Federl, nd Totl Recoverle Col Reserves in the Principl Western Col-Producing Sttes (ll reserves shown in illion tons) Estimtes of Estimtes of Recoverle totl Federl Estimtes of Recoverle totl Federl Estimtes of col under recoverle totl recoverle col under recoverle totl recoverle Iese reserves col c Iese reserves col c Colordo Oklhom Montn Uth New Mexico Wyoming North Dkot to 35 Totl Lesed reserve figures from Automted Col Lese Dt System s modified y Office of Technology Assessment. The numers in this column re estimtes of the totl Federl recoverle col reserves in ech Stte. The figure for New Mexico ws supplied to Office of Technology Assessment y the New Mexico Bureu of Mines nd Minerl Resources nd the figure for Uth y the Uth Geologicl nd Minerl Survey. See footnote c, elow. The figures for the other sttes were estimted y multiplying the estimte of totl recoverle col in the Stte y the percentge of Federl col crege in Known Recoverle Col Resource Ares in ech Stte These percentges were tken from tle 21 in ch. 4 nd re: Colordo (580/0), Montn (640/0), North Dkot (327.), nd Wyoming (730/0). In Montn, the Federl percentge my e high ecuse the KRCRAs do not include Indin reservtions with significnt reserves of col. The Colordo percentge my lso e high ecuse the KRCRAs do not include the Denver- Rton Mes col region which hs high percentge of non-federl col ownership. c Totl Stte recoverle reserves from the following sources: Colordo. Keith Murry, Colordo School of Mines Reserch Institute. Personl communiction to Office of Technology Assessment, Ferury The figure of 17 illion tons IS sed on his erlier work t the Colordo Geologicl Survey. Montn: Montn Bureu of Mines nd Geology s reported in the 1979 Keystone Col Industry Mnul. The figure of 40 illion tons ws derived from the reported figure of 50 illion tons of stripple reserves nd recovery rte of 80 percent. This figure does not include 71 illion tons of underground demonstrted reserve se lso listed in the 1979 Keystone Col Industry Mnul from dt supplied y the U.S.B.M. New Mexico: New Mexico Bureu of Mines nd Minerl Resources, Personl communiction to Office of Technology Assessment, August The figure does not include n dditionl 59 illion tons of recoverle underground reserves etween 250 ft depth nd 3,000 ft depth ecuse insufficient informtion ws ville for the New Mexico Bureu to determine the portion of these reserves in sems tht re likely to e mined In the next decde. North Dkot: North Dkot Geologicl Survey, Personl communiction to Office of Technology Assessment, August A recovery rte of 90 percent hs een ssumed y the North Dkot Survey. Oklhom: Friedmn, S.A. Investigtion of the Col Reserves in the Ozrks Section of Oklhom nd their Potentil Uses (Normn, Okl.: Oklhom Geologicl Survey, 1975). Uth: Uth Geologicl nd Minerl Survey, Personl communiction to Off Ice of Technology Assessment, August The Uth Survey cutions tht this figure is low, ecuse it is sed on stringent stndrds for identifiction nd correltion of economiclly recoverle reserves. Wyoming: Gry Glss, Wyoming Geologicl Survey, Personl communiction to Office of Technology Assessment, August The ove figure is derived from surfce reserve se of 26.3 illion tons with recovery rte of 80 percent nd n underground reserve se of 29.5 illion tons with recovery rte of 50 percent. Glss cutions tht the underground recovery rte of 50 percent my e too high for Wyoming. Generl cution: The totl recoverle col reserve figures were otined from seven different sources nd re not sed on uniform stndrds. SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. History of Lesing Federl col hs een lesed since enctment of the Minerl Lesing Act on Ferury 25, The oldest lese still in effect, issued on Jnury 17, 1921, originlly covered 2,080 cres in Uth. Of the currently existing leses, 88 were issued efore 1950 (see tle 8). These include 16 percent of ll existing leses, ut only 5 percent of ll lnd under lese s of Septemer 30, Eightysix percent of ll leses covering 90 percent of ll lnd under lese re t lest 10 yers old. * *A totl of 526 of the 565 existing leses were issued efore Aug. 4, 1976, the dte of enctment of the Federl Col Lesing Amendments Act of 1976 (Pulic Lw ]. Techniclly these re the existing leses suject to OTA scrutiny under sec. 10 of tht lw. The numer of leses nd lesed crege incresed slowly in the 1950 s ut ccelerted shrply in the 1960 s (see fig. 15). The solid line (numer of leses) nd the dshed line (cres under lese) in figure 15 cross round 1965 ecuse of trend during the 1960 s to include lrger creges in single leses. The mortorium on most new lesing y DOI from 1971 through 1980 slowed lesing to the levels of the 1950 s. Historiclly, trends in Federl col production did not coincide with trends in lesing. Production declined from 7.1 million to 5.4 million tons from 1950 to 1960 nd remined t this reltively low level during the 1960 s. Production during the 1970 s hs, however, sored from 7.3 million tons in 1970 to 69 million tons in 1980.

5 Ch. 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview Ž 49 Tle 8. History of Lesing Numer of leses Acres under lese (16%) 41,492 (5%) (21 %) 75,949 (9%) (29%) 143,746 (18%) (51%) 308,354 (38%) (86%) 733,318 (90%) (93%) 764,994 (94%) ,001 Tle includes only leses in existence on Jn 2 of ech yer Iisted nd which were still vlid on Sept. 30, 1980 The 1980 figures report li leses in existence on Sept. 30, 1980 percentges re percent of 1980 totls. SOURCE Office of Technology Assessment Figure 15. Numer of Leses, Acrege Under Lese, nd Federl Col Production From 1950 to Acres under lese. Numer of leses / produced per yer Lese Issunce Methods Existing leses were issued y one of three methods: 1 ) competitive idding t lese sle, 2) noncompetitive preference right lesing, or 3) segregtion of n existing lese (lso clled prtil ssignment). The Minerl Lesing Act of 1920 requires DOI to lese competitively pulic lnd known to contin commercil quntities of col, Severl idding procedures hve een used in the pst, including seled written ids nd open verl uctions. Leses hve een wrded to the prty offering the highest onetime csh onus pyment. Other idding methods esides the csh onus procedure my e used for future lesing. Although these lese sles were open to ll idders, more thn hlf of ll lese sles held efore 1979 ttrcted only one idder. In totl, 52 percent of ll existing leses hve een issued under the lese sle method (see tle 9). Preference right lesing under the 1920 lesing ct ws limited to lnd without known commercil quntities of col for which dditionl prospecting work ws needed to determine the existence of economiclly minle col deposits. In these cses, pplicnts could receive prospecting permit from DOI to perform explortion nd drilling. If col ws found in commercil quntities within the 2- yer permit period (extendle once), the prospector ws entitled to preference right lese. As n incentive to promote explortion of pulic lnds, no onus ws required on preference right leses. Of ll existing leses, 42 percent were issued under the preference right method. In 1971, DOI suspended issunce of new prospecting permits nd delyed processing Tle 9. Lese Issunce Method for Existing Leses SOURCE Acrege nd numer of leses dt from OTA review of DOI cse files Federl col production from the U S Deprtment of Interior, Federl Col Mngement Report Fiscl Yer 1978, Mrch 1979 nd from the ACLDS Issunce method Numer of leses 0/0 of leses Lese sles /o Preference right, /o Segregtion /0 SOURCE Off Ice of Technology Assessment

6 50 An Assessment of Development nd production Potentil of Federl Col Leses of pending preference right lese pplictions (PRLAs). In 1976, in the Federl Col Lesing Amendments Act, Congress repeled provisions for preference right lesing, suject to vlid existing rights. The preference right progrm no longer exists except for the pplictions for leses sed on the prospecting permits issued prior to the 1971 lesing mortorium (nerly ll dting from 1967 to 1971). Applictions for leses were not completely processed y DOI when the mortorium egn; processing lrgely cesed during the mortorium nd resumed in lte (Aout 176 pplictions remin.) These PRLAs re discussed in more detil in the next section. Another lesing procedure is clled segregtion or prtil ssignment. Here, n existing lese is divided into two or more prcels t the request of the lessee(s). Such ctions require the pprovl of DOI. A new lese(s) is then issued for the new trct(s) nd the terms of the surviving lese re modified to reflect reduced crege. Only 6 percent of outstnding Federl leses hve een creted y segregtion. Pending PRLAs As of Jnury 1, 1980, there were 176 pending pplictions for preference right leses. They stem from prospecting permits issued etween 1955 nd 1971 with 172 (98 percent) originting fter Jnury 1, These permits expired just efore or shortly fter the initition of the lesing mortorium in 1971 nd the resulting lese pplictions were neither pproved nor denied. They hve remined unprocessed for decde, lthough they hve een the suject of lwsuits, Government studies, nd congressionl ctions. Nerly 98 percent of the PRLAs re locted in the seven Western Stte region studied y OTA (see tle 10). The remining four re in Alsk. In totl, 403,800 cres of Federl col lnd re included in PRLAs nd involve n estimted 5.8 illion tons of recoverle col reserves. Wyoming, with 74 PRLAs, hs the lrgest numer of pplictions. They in- Tle 10. Extent nd Loction of PRLAs Recoverle col Numer of reserves PRLAs Acrege (illions of tons) Totl , All percentges equl percent of totl for ll PRLAs. Figures for Montn nd Oklhom comined. SOURCE Numer of PRLAs nd crege from OTA review of DOI cse files. Reserves from Automted Col Lese Dt System, Sept. 30, 1979 nd reported in U S. Deprtment of the Interior, Federl Col Mngement Report, Mrch elude 43 percent of the reserves nd 34 percent of the crege in ll PRLAs. Colordo rnks second with 37 PRLAs including 18 percent of totl reserves nd New Mexico is third with 28 PRLAs including 26 percent of the reserves. Acreges nd reserves under the PRLAs re sustntil. If ll the pplictions re pproved nd converted to leses, totl lnd under lese will increse y 50 percent nd lesed recoverle col reserves will e rised y 35 percent. Most of the legl nd dministrtive prolems preventing the processing of the PRLAs hve een resolved in recent yers. The current Federl col lese mngement progrm dopted y DOI in July 1979 clls for the processing of the pplictions to e completed y Environmentl, legl, nd technicl considertions could led to the rejection of some of the PRLAs or result in crege modifictions or the ddition of lese stipultions which restrict susequent col mining. These issues re discussed in more detil in chpter 9.

7 Ch. 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview 51 Lese or PRLA Acquisition Methods Although ech lese or prospecting permit ws originlly issued y DOI, there re severl other methods y which the present owners hve otined leses or PRLAs. The issunce of lese or prospecting permit y the Federl Government is termed in this study de novo lesing or permitting. OTA found in study of the 538 leses nd 176 PRLAs outstnding s of Septemer 30, 1979, tht only 117 leses (22 percent of the lese totl) nd 19 PRLAs (11 percent of the totl PRLAs) re still held y the originl owner (see tle 11). The remining 78 percent of ll leses nd 89 percent of ll PRLAs hve een otined y their present owners from previous owners through one of two methods: 1) ssignment nd 2) segregtion. Owners of leses or PRLAs my sell or trnsfer their contrcts to other prties with pprovl of DOI. This process is clled ssignment. Assignments re essentilly privte trnsctions nd ny csh, property, service greements, or overriding roylties re, with few limittions, etween the uyer nd seller. Tle 11. Lese nd PRLA Acquisition Method Used y Present Owner Numer nd percent Numer nd percent Acquisition method of leses of PRLAs De novo (22%) 19 (11%) Assignment., (75%) 133 (76%) First Second Third or more Segregtion (3%) 24 (14%) The "Segregtlon" totl in this tle differs from the numer (34) Iisted in tle 9 ecuse eight segregted leses were susequently ssigned to their present owners Also, tle 9 includes 27 leses issued in lte 1979 nd in 1980 These leses were not Included in the ove nlysis SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. Approximtely 75 percent of the outstnding leses nd PRLAs were otined y their current owner through ssignment. Multiple ssignments hve een mde on mny leses nd PRLAs; 124 leses hve een ssigned twice nd 133 hve chnged hnds three or more times. The 176 PRLAs hve een ssigned totl of 227 times. Segregtion, lredy discussed in this chpter (see tle 9), hs een used y the present owners of 18 leses nd 24 PRLAs. Like ssignments, segregtions re lrgely trnsctions mong privte prties tht re then recorded y the Federl Government. Control of col lese or PRLA cn e otined without ctully cquiring title through the de novo, ssignment, or segregtion procedures, This involves the purchse of controlling interest in firm which lredy owns leses or PRLAs. The cquired firm cn then ecome susidiry of the purchser nd the purchser is le to mke decisions ffecting the leses or PRLAs. Although trnsfers of title y ssignment from the cquired compny to the purchsing compny often occur, they re not oligtory. Corporte mergers nd cquisitions hve frequently involved leses nd PRLAs. For exmple, t lest 10 of the 36 leseholding compnies now operting s wholly owned susidiries once held leses s independent corportions. As nother exmple, in 1980 three firms holding leses were purchsed y mjor energy compnies. Becuse lese title trnsfers do not lwys ccompny corporte cquisitions, it is difficult to precisely determine the role of mergers in the lesing progrm; however it is clerly significnt. Ownership of Leses nd PRLAs Ownership of leses nd PRLAs is shred ventures involving some of the lrgest corpoy numer of unincorported individuls rtions in the world. * nd y vriety of diverse compnies. *Lese nd PRLA ownership ptterns nd trends from 1950 Owners rnge from sole proprietors to joint to 1980 re discussed in greter detil in ch. 13. Lese owner-

8 52. An Assessment of Development nd Production Potenti/ of Federl Col Leses Aout 115 corportions own col leses or indirectly control them through susidiries or joint ventures. In ddition, s of Jnury 1, 1980, 59 individuls held leses in their own nme. As of Jnury 1, 1980, 29 compnies nd 18 individuls owned PRLAs. Electric utilities hold 21 percent of ll outstnding crege under col lese s of Septemer 30, 1979, more thn ny other single usiness ctegory defined y OTA. Seventeen utilities now own leses. Eleven of the 18 lrgest oil compnies (i.e., the oil mjors) control 20 percent of lesed crege. Seven other usiness ctivity ctegories own leses covering t lest 5 percent of ll lnd under lese, rnging from 8 percent owned y Peody Col Co. (the lrgest single lessee) to 5 percent owned y nonresource-relted diversified compnies such s Generl Electric or Monsnto (see tle 12 nd ch. 13). Unincorported individuls hold 20 percent of ll lnd included in PRLAs, more thn ny of the eight usiness ctegories identified y OTA s mjor PRLA holders. The mjor energy compnies rnk second, with 16 percent. Other principl holders of PRLAs include nturl gs pipeline, metls, oil or gs, nd electric utility compnies. OTA found tht lese nd PRLA holders represent one of four types of usiness orgniztions. Most of the crege under lese (43 percent) nd under PRLA (44 percent) is held y susidiries of lrger prent compnies. Only 26 percent of ll lesed lnd nd 12 percent of lnd under PRLAs is controlled y independent firms. Multicorporte enti- Continued from p. 51. ship is discussed in considerle detil in the OTA Technicl Memorndum Ptterns nd Trends in Federl Col Lese Ownership: , OTA-TM-M-7, Mrch Tle 12. Mjor Business Activity Ctegories Holding Federl Col Leses nd PRLAs in 1980 Electric utilities Energy compnies Peody Col Co Steel compnies Independent col compnies. Oil nd gs (minor) compnies Unincorported individuls... Nturl gs pipeline compnies Nonresource-relted diversified compnies Kemmerer Col Co Metls nd mining compnies. Lndholding compnies Other compnies Percent of lesed lnd 21% <1 10 Percent of lnd included in PRLAs 12 (In other ) (less thn 5%) The office of Technology Assessment nlyzed seprtely ny usiness ctivity ctegory (including Individul compnies with unique usiness structures) holding t lest 5 percent of ll lnd under lese or PRLA t t lest 1 of 7 nlysis dtes etween 1950 nd (See ch. 13). The nlysis includes the 538 leses nd 176 PRLAs in existence s of Sept. 30, 1979, ln Mrch 1981, Kemmerer Col Co. ws purchsed y Gulf Oil Corp. SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment ties, such s joint ventures, re the newest usiness orgniztions to control significnt pulic col lnd; they hold 25 percent of lesed lnd nd 22 percent of lnd under PRLAs. Finlly, unincorported individuls control 5 percent of lnd under lese nd 20 percent of lnd under PRLAs. Over the pst 30 yers, there hs een generl decline in the percentge of leses nd PRLAs held y smll independent compnies nd unincorported individuls. The proportion of leses held y lrge diversified firms nd compnies operting on lesed lnd through susidiry nd multicorporte rrngements hs risen. There hs lso een n increse in the numer of different industries holding mjor shres in Federl lesing. The numer of usiness ctegories holding t lest 5 percent of ll lnd under lese grew from four to nine etween 1950 nd Lese Development Sttus A principl ojective of this study is to exmine mining ctivity on Federl leses nd to ssess the development potentil of ex- isting leses nd PRLAs. During this nlysis OTA divided the existing leses into units or locks. A lese unit, s used y OTA, consists

9 Ch. 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview 53 of either ll leses included in the sme ctive or proposed mine s defined y the mine pln, or one or more undeveloped leses tht re owned y the sme lessee nd tht re contiguous or sufficiently close together to form compct minle unit. * OTA divided the 565 existing col leses into 256 units (see tle 13). The smllest units contin one lese covering 40 cres. The lrgest, locted in southern Uth, includes 21 leses nd 40,277 cres. Colordo, Uth, nd Wyoming together ccount for 176 lese units, 69 percent of the totl. OTA evluted mining ctivity nd mine development prospects for the 244 lese units locted in the seven principl Western colproducing Sttes listed in tle 13. The lese units were grouped in three ctegories ccording to stges of development. Ech of the ctegories required different type of dt collection nd nlysis. The three development ctegories re: leses with pproved mine plns;. leses with mine plns sumitted nd pending pprovl; nd leses without sumitted mine plns. Leses nd lese units were plced in these ctegories sed on OTA s review of ll mine plns on file with the Office of Surfce See ch. 2 for more informtion on the OTA methodology. Tle 13. Numer nd Loction of Leses nd Lese Units Stte Numer of leses Numer of lese units Colordo Montn New Mexico.. 29 North Dkot. 20 Oklhom Uth Wyoming Other Sttes Totl SOURCE Off Ice of Technology Assessment Mining (OSM) on Septemer 30, * The numer of leses nd lese units, crege, nd recoverle col reserves in ech of the three ctegories is shown in tle 14 (see lso fig. 9 in ch. 1). Informtion in this tle is summrized elow. Leses With Approved Mine Plns Approximtely one-third of ll leses nd ll lese units hve pproved mine plns. Mny of the mines in this ctegory re ctively producing; however, some mines only recently received permit pprovl nd hve not yet egun commercil opertions, The pproved ctegory lso includes smll numer of new leses issued in 1979 nd 1980 to ensure the continued opertion of existing mines (even if the pproved mine pln hs not yet een formlly modified to dd the new leses) nd severl leses included in pending mendments to pproved mine plns. In Montn, 54 percent of the lese units, contining 69 percent of the lesed reserves re in pproved mine plns (see tle 15). New Mexico nd Oklhom hve the smllest percentge of lese units in the pproved ctegory nd Oklhom nd Uth the lowest percentge of lesed reserves in the pproved ctegory. Before lessee cn mine col from Federl lese, DOI must pprove the proposed mining opertion. Becuse only por- *Before col cn e produced from Federl lnd, mine pln must e sumitted to nd pproved y DOI. Hence, mine pln sttus provides convenient yrdstick y which to mesure lese development. There re two seprte requirements for mine plns for Federl leses. First, mine pln must e sumitted to comply with the generl provisions nd regultions under the Minerl Lesing Act of 1920 (MLA), s mended, nd secondly, mining nd reclmtion pln must e sumitted for ll surfce nd underground mines to comply with the Surfce Mining Control nd Reclmtion Act of 1977 (SMCRA) whether or not Federl lnds re involved. Under DOI directives, single mining pln is sumitted to OSM to meet oth MLA nd SMCRA requirements, however, OSM nd the Geologicl Survey ech retin their seprte responsiilities for enforcement nd permit pprovl.

10 54 An Assessment of Development nd Production Potentil of Federl Col Leses Tle 14. Summry Tle The Development Sttus of Federl Col Leses Approved mining plns (including leses in production) Pending mine plns No mine plns Recover- Recover- Recoverle le le Numer Numer Numer reserves Numer Numer Numer reserves Numer Numer Numer reserves of of of illions of of of illions of of of illions leses units cres of tons leses units cres of tons leses units cres of tons See lso tle 6 in this chpter nd fig. 9 in ch. 1. Percentges re percent of totls within the Stte, for ech Stte. c Percentges re percent of totls for ll Sttes SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. Tle 15. Leses in Production nd With Approved Mine Plns Numer Numer Recoverle of of lese reserves leses units Acres (illions of tons) tion of the pproved permit re is mined in ny given yer, it is unlikely tht ll Federl col leses in pproved mine plns will e producing t one time. In 1980, col ws mined from out 100 Federl leses, which is out hlf of the leses in the pproved ctegory. Sixty-nine million tons of col were mined from the producing leses in the seven Western Stte OTA study region (see tle 16). Federl col contriuted 34 percent of ll production from these Sttes. In 1980, Federl col provided 66 percent of Uth s entire output, 36 percent of Wyoming s production, ut only 3.5 percent of the col mined in North Dkot nd only 5 percent of the col mined in Oklhom. Leses With Pending Mine Plns Approximtely 21 percent of ll leses nd 15 percent of lesed reserves re included in

11 Ch. 3 Federl Col Leses nd Preference Right Lese Applictions: An Overview 55 Tle nd 1980 Col Production From Federl Leses nd From Western Sttes lncludes Federl production from Kentucky, Alm, nd Wshington. Totl does not include contriution from other Sttes. SOURCE: 1979 Federl production from U.S. Geologicl Survey ccounting office Stte production from the U.S. Energy Informtion Agency, Week/y Col Production Report, Aug. 16, Federl production from U.S. Geologicl Survey, Federl nd Indin Lnds Col, Phosphte, Potsh, Sodium nd Other Minerl Production, Roylty lncome, nd Relted Sttistics, June Stte production from the U.S. Energy Informtion Agency, Personl Communiction to the Office of Technology Assessment, July 27, the 13 percent of ll lese units for which mine plns hve een sumitted to OSM nd for which Federl pprovl is pending. This clssifiction does not distinguish mong lese units on the sis of qulity of sumitted mine plns, their dte of sumission, or the current stge of the review of the mine pln. New Mexico, Uth, nd North Dkot ech hve 20 percent of their lese units flling in the pending mine pln ctegory. On the other hnd, no pending mine plns ffecting Montn leses re eing studied y DOI nd only 1 of Oklhom s 26 lese units is included in pending mine pln (see tle 17). Leses Without Mine Plns Over hlf of ll existing lese units, 44 percent of ll leses, 42 percent of ll lesed Tle 17. Leses With Pending Mine Plns Numer Numer Recoverle of of lese reserves leses units Acres (illions of tons) Montn Percentgs re percent of totl for ech Stte except percent of totl which is percent of seven Stte totl. SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment : O L 3

12 56 An Assessment of Development nd production Potentil of Federl Col Leses crege, nd 40 percent of lesed reserves hve not een developed to the point of mine pln sumission to OSM. Preliminry development ctivity vries widely on these undeveloped units, from extensive explortion drilling nd mine pln preprtion on some units to no ctivity t ll on others (see ch. 6). Oklhom hs the lrgest proportion of Federl col leses without mine plns, nd five of the seven Western Sttes hve over 30 percent of their lesed Federl reserves in this ctegory (see tle 18). Sixty-seven percent of New Mexico s lese units hve no mine plns, ut they cover just 22 percent of lesed reserves. Tle 18. Leses for Which No Mine Plns Hve Been Sumitted Numer Numer Recoverle of of lese reserves leses units Acres (illions of tons) , Totl (44%) (57%) (41 %) (40%) Percentges re percent of totl for ech Stte except percent of totl which is percent of seven Stte totl. SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment.