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The Secretary shall make all decisions under this section
within 180 days of request. The area covered by any re-
purchased and cancelled lease shall remain available for
future leasing unless otherwise prohibited by law. For pur-
poses of this section, failure to act within a regulatory or
statutory time-frame, whether advisory or mandatory, or
if none, within a reasonable period of time not to exceed
180 days, on a permit request, administrative appeal, or
other request for approval, shall be considered to meet the
operation of law requirements of this section. Further,
conditions of approval attached to permit approvals shall
meet the operation of law requirement of this section if
such conditions are not mandated by statute or regulation
and not agreed to by the lessee. A lessee shall not be re-
quired to exhaust administrative remedies regarding a per-
mit request, administrative appeal, or other required re-
quest for approval for the purposes of this section.
(b) DETERMINATION
OF
A
COMMERCIAL
DIS-
COVERY.—The Secretary shall make any required deter-
mination of the existence of a commercial resource dis-
covery. For oil and gas, a commercial discovery is a dis-
covery in paying quantities. The Secretary shall be guided
in such a determination by precedent, and by written ad-
vice, including input from the lessee.
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(c) COMPENSATION.—Upon authorization by the Sec-
retary of the repurchase of a lease under this section, a
lessee shall be compensated in the amount of the total of
lease acquisition costs, rentals, seismic acquisition costs,
archeological and environmental studies, drilling costs,
and other reasonable expenses on the lease, including ex-
penses incurred in the repurchase process, to the extent
that the lessee has not previously been compensated by
the United States for such expenses. The lessee shall not
be compensated for general overhead expenses, employee
salaries, or interest. If the lessee is an assignee, the lessee
may not claim the expenses of his assignor. Compensation
shall be in the form of a check or electronic transfer from
the Department of the Treasury from funds deposited into
miscellaneous receipts under the authority of the same Act
that authorized the issuance of the lease being repur-
chased. If the Secretary fails to make the repurchase au-
thorization decision under subsection (a) within the re-
quired 180 days and the lease is ultimately repurchased,
the compensation due to the lessee shall increase by 25
percent, plus 1 percent for every seven days that the deci-
sion is delayed beyond the required 180 days.
(d) DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY AND FINALITY OF
DECISIONS.—The Secretary may delegate authority grant-
ed by this section only to individuals who have been ap-
975
pointed by the President, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate. A decision under this section by the
Secretary, or delegated official, shall be considered the
final agency decision.
(e) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary shall issue rea-
sonable regulations implementing this section not later
than 1 year after date of enactment of this Act.
(f) SECRETARY.—For purposes of this section, the
term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of the Interior.
(g) NO PREJUDICE.—This section shall not be inter-
preted to prejudice any other rights that the lessee would
have in the absence of this section.
SEC. 2055. LIMITATION ON REQUIRED REVIEW UNDER
NEPA.
(a) LIMITATION ON REVIEW.—Action by the Sec-
retary of the Interior in managing the public lands with
respect to any of the activities described in subsection (b)
shall not be subject to review under section 102(2)(C) the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C.
4332(2)(C)), if the activity is conducted for the purpose
of exploration or development of a domestic Federal en-
ergy source.
(b) ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED.—The activities referred
to in subsection (a) are the following:
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(1) Geophysical exploration that does not re-
quire road building.
(2) Individual surface disturbances of less than
5 acres.
(3) Drilling an oil or gas well at a location or
well pad site at which drilling has occurred pre-
viously.
(4) Drilling an oil or gas well within a devel-
oped field for which an approved land use plan or
any environmental document prepared pursuant to
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 ana-
lyzed such drilling as a reasonably foreseeable activ-
ity.
(5) Disposal of water produced from an oil or
gas well, if the disposal is in compliance with a per-
mit issued under the Federal Water Pollution Con-
trol Act.
(6) Placement of a pipeline in an approved
right-of-way corridor.
(7) Maintenance of a minor activity, other than
any construction or major renovation of a building
or facility.
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TITLE XXI—COAL—RESOURCES
SEC. 2101. SHORT TITLE.
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Coal Leasing Amend-
ments Act of 2005’’.
SEC. 2102. LEASE MODIFICATIONS FOR CONTIGUOUS COAL
LANDS OR COAL DEPOSITS.
Section 3 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 203)
is amended in the first sentence by striking ‘‘such lease,’’
and all that follows through the end of the sentence and
inserting ‘‘such lease.’’.
SEC. 2103. APPROVAL OF LOGICAL MINING UNITS.
Section 2(d)(2) of the Mineral Leasing Act (30
U.S.C. 202a(2)) is amended—
(1) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘(2)’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(B) The Secretary may establish a period of more
than 40 years if the Secretary determines that the longer
period—
‘‘(i) will ensure the maximum economic recovery
of a coal deposit; or
‘‘(ii) the longer period is in the interest of the
orderly, efficient, or economic development of a coal
resource.’’.