S. 2300

One Hundred Sixth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday,

the twenty-fourth day of January, two thousand

An Act

To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to increase the maximum acreage of Federal

leases for coal that may be held by an entity in any 1 State.

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 ‘‘Coal Market Competition Act

of 2000’’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that—

(1) Federal land contains commercial deposits of coal, the

Nation’s largest deposits of coal being located on Federal land

in Utah, Colorado, Montana, and the Powder River Basin of

Wyoming;

(2) coal is mined on Federal land through Federal coal

leases under the Act of February 25, 1920 (commonly known

as the ‘‘Mineral Leasing Act’’) (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.);

(3) the sub-bituminous coal from these mines is low in

sulfur, making it the cleanest burning coal for energy production;

(4) the Mineral Leasing Act sets for each leasable mineral

a limitation on the amount of acreage of Federal leases any

1 producer may hold in any 1 State or nationally;

(5)(A) the present acreage limitation for Federal coal leases

has been in place since 1976;

(B) currently the coal lease acreage limit of 46,080 acres

per State is less than the per-State Federal lease acreage

limit for potash (96,000 acres) and oil and gas (246,080 acres);

(6) coal producers in Wyoming and Utah are operating

mines on Federal leaseholds that contain total acreage close

to the coal lease acreage ceiling;

(7) the same reasons that Congress cited in enacting

increases for State lease acreage caps applicable in the case

of other minerals—the advent of modern mine technology,

changes in industry economics, greater global competition, and

the need to conserve Federal resources—apply to coal;

(8) existing coal mines require additional lease acreage

to avoid premature closure, but those mines cannot relinquish

mined-out areas to lease new acreage because those areas are

subject to 10-year reclamation plans, and the reclaimed acreage

is counted against the State and national acreage limits;

(9) to enable them to make long-term business decisions

affecting the type and amount of additional infrastructure
S. 2300—2

investments, coal producers need certainty that sufficient acreage of leasable coal will be available for mining in the future;

and

(10) to maintain the vitality of the domestic coal industry

and ensure the continued flow of valuable revenues to the

Federal and State governments and of energy to the American

public from coal production on Federal land, the Mineral

Leasing Act should be amended to increase the acreage limitation for Federal coal leases.

SEC. 3. COAL MINING ON FEDERAL LAND.

Section 27(a) of the Act of February 25, 1920 (30 U.S.C. 184(a)),

is amended—

(1) by striking ‘‘(a)’’ and all that follows through ‘‘No person’’

and inserting ‘‘(a) COAL LEASES.—No person’’;

(2) by striking ‘‘forty-six thousand and eighty acres’’ and

inserting ‘‘75,000 acres’’; and

(3) by striking ‘‘one hundred thousand acres’’ each place

it appears and inserting ‘‘150,000 acres’’.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.