1.This Act may be cited as the
Coal Leasing Amendments Act of
2005
.
2.Financial
assurances with respect to bonus bidsSection 2(a) of the Mineral Leasing Act
(30 U.S.C.
201(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(4)(A)The Secretary shall not
require a surety bond or any other financial assurance to guarantee payment of
deferred bonus bid installments with respect to any coal lease issued on a cash
bonus bid to a lessee or successor in interest having a history of a timely
payment of noncontested coal royalties and advanced coal royalties in lieu of
production (where applicable) and bonus bid installment payments.
(B)The Secretary may waive any
requirement that a lessee provide a surety bond or other financial assurance
for a coal lease issued before the date of enactment of this paragraph only if
the Secretary determines that the lessee has a history of making the timely
payments described in subparagraph (A).
(5)Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, if the lessee under a coal lease fails to pay any installment of a
deferred cash bonus bid within 10 days after the Secretary provides written
notice that payment of the installment is past due—
(A)the lease shall automatically
terminate; and
(B)any bonus payments already made to the
United States with respect to the lease shall not be returned to the lessee or
credited in any future lease
sale.
.
3.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)is in the interest of the orderly,
efficient, or economic development of a coal
resource.
.
4.Repeal of the 160-ACRE
limitation for coal leasesSection 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 period at the end and inserting the
lease.
.
5.Payment of
advance royalties under coal leases
(a)Section 7 of the Mineral
Leasing Act of 1920 (30 U.S.C. 207) is amended by
striking subsection (b) and inserting the following:
(b)(1)Each lease shall be
subject to the condition of diligent development and continued operation of the
mine, except in cases in which operations under the lease are interrupted by
strikes, the elements, or casualties not attributable to the lessee.
(2)(A)The Secretary of the
Interior may suspend the condition of continued operation on the payment of
advance royalties if the Secretary of the Interior determines that the
suspension is in the public interest.
(B)The amount of advance royalties to be
paid under subparagraph (A) shall be determined based on—
(i)(I)the average price in
the spot market for sales of coal from the same region during the last month of
each applicable continued operation year; or
(II)if there is no spot market for coal
from the same region, a comparable method established by the Secretary of the
Interior to capture the commercial value of coal; and
(ii)based on commercial quantities, as
defined by regulations issued by the Secretary of the Interior.
(C)Advance royalties may be accepted in
lieu of the condition of continued operation for not more than a total of 20
years during the initial term and any extended terms of a lease.
(3)(A)Subject to subparagraph
(B), the amount of a production royalty paid for any year shall be reduced by
the amount of any advance royalties paid under the lease to the extent that the
advance royalties have not been used to reduce production royalties for a prior
year.
(B)The amount of a production royalty
shall not be reduced below zero.
(4)This subsection applies to any lease
or logical mining unit that is—
(A)in existence on the date of enactment
of this paragraph; or
(B)issued or approved after the date of
enactment of this paragraph.
(5)Nothing in this subsection affects
the requirement in the second sentence of subsection (a) relating to
commencement of production at the end of 10
years.
.
(b)Authority to
waive, suspend, or reduce advance royaltiesSection 39 of the
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 209) is
amended by striking the last sentence.
6.Elimination of
deadline for submission of coal lease operation and reclamation
planSection 7(c) of the
Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 207(c)) is
amended in the first sentence by striking and not later than three years
after a lease is issued,
.
7.
(a)In
this section:
(1)The term compliant coal means coal that
contains not less than 1.0 and not more than 1.2 pounds of sulfur dioxide per
million Btu.
(2)The
term Secretary
means the Secretary of the Interior.
(3)The term supercompliant coal means coal that
contains less than 1.0 pounds of sulfur dioxide per million Btu.
(b)Review of
assessments; inventoryThe Secretary, in consultation with the
Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Energy, shall review coal
assessments and other available data for purposes of preparing an inventory
that identifies—
(1)public land with
coal resources;
(2)the extent and
nature of any restrictions or impediments to the development of coal resources
on the public land identified under paragraph (1); and
(3)with respect to
areas of the identified public land for which sufficient data exists, resources
of compliant coal and supercompliant coal.
(c)Completion and
updates of inventory
(1)Not
later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
complete the inventory required under subsection (b).
(2)The
Secretary shall update the inventory prepared under subsection (b) as the
availability of data and developments in technology warrant.
(d)The
Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Resources of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate
and make publicly available—
(1)on completion of
the inventory required under subsection (b), a report that includes the
inventory; and
(2)any updates of the
inventory prepared under subsection (c)(2).
8.Application of
amendmentsThe amendments made
by this Act apply with respect to any coal lease issued before, on, or after
the date of enactment of this Act.