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[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4382 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4382

  To ensure Federal oil and natural gas lease sales occur, eliminate 
     redundant leasing bureaucracy, and provide leasing certainty.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 18, 2012

   Mr. Coffman of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To ensure Federal oil and natural gas lease sales occur, eliminate 
     redundant leasing bureaucracy, and provide leasing certainty.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Providing Leasing Certainty for 
American Energy Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. MINIMUM ACREAGE REQUIREMENT FOR ONSHORE LEASE SALES.

    In conducting lease sales as required by section 226A of the 
Mineral Leasing Act, each year the Secretary of the Interior shall 
perform the following:
            (1) The Secretary shall offer for sale no less than 25 
        percent of the annual nominated acreage not previously made 
        available for lease. Acreage offered for lease pursuant to this 
        paragraph shall not be subject to protest and shall be eligible 
        for categorical exclusions under section 390 of the Energy 
        Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15492), except that it shall not 
        be subject to the test of extraordinary circumstances.
            (2) In administering this section, the Secretary shall only 
        consider leasing of Federal lands that are available for 
        leasing at the time the lease sale occurs.

SEC. 3. LEASING CERTAINTY.

    Section 17(a) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226(a)) is 
amended by inserting ``(1)'' before ``All lands'', and by adding at the 
end the following:
    ``(2)(A) The Secretary shall not withdraw any covered energy 
project issued under this Act without finding a violation of the terms 
of the lease by the lessee.
    ``(B) The Secretary shall not infringe upon lease rights under 
leases issued under this Act by indefinitely delaying issuance of 
project approvals, drilling and seismic permits, and rights of way for 
activities under such a lease.
    ``(C) No later than 18 months after an area is designated as open 
under the current land use plan the Secretary shall make available 
nominated areas for lease under the criteria in section 2.
    ``(D) Notwithstanding any other law, the Secretary shall issue all 
leases sold 60 days after the last payment is made.
    ``(E) The Secretary shall not cancel or withdraw any lease parcel 
after a competitive lease sale has occurred and a winning bidder has 
submitted the last payment for the parcel.
    ``(F) Not later than 60 days after a lease sale held under this 
Act, the Secretary shall adjudicate any lease protests filed following 
a lease sale. If after 60 days any protest is left unsettled, said 
protest is automatically denied and appeal rights of the protestor 
begin.
    ``(G) No additional lease stipulations may be added after the 
parcel is sold without consultation and agreement of the lessee, unless 
the Secretary deems such stipulations as emergency actions to conserve 
the resources of the United States.''.

SEC. 4. LEASING CONSISTENCY.

    Federal land managers must follow existing resource management 
plans and continue to actively lease in areas designated as open when 
resource management plans are being amended or revised, until such time 
as a new record of decision is signed.

SEC. 5. REDUCE REDUNDANT POLICIES.

    Bureau of Land Management Instruction Memorandum 2010-117 shall 
have no force or effect.
                                 <all>
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