[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H12009-H12010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         MINERAL LEASING ACT AMENDMENTS REGARDING TRONA MINING

  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3063) to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to increase the 
maximum acreage of Federal leases for sodium that may be held by an 
entity in any one State, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 3063

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

     SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

       The Congress finds and declares that--
       (1) The Federal lands contain commercial deposits of trona, 
     with the world's largest body of this mineral located on such 
     lands in southwestern Wyoming.
       (2) Trona is mined on Federal lands through Federal sodium 
     leases issued under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.
       (3) The primary product of trona mining is soda ash (sodium 
     carbonate), a basic industrial chemical that is used for 
     glass making and a variety of consumer products, including 
     baking soda, detergents, and pharmaceuticals.
       (4) The Mineral Leasing Act sets for each leasable mineral 
     limitations on the amount of acreage of Federal leases any 
     one producer may hold in any one state or nationally.
       (5) The present acreage limitation for Federal sodium 
     (trona) leases has been in place for over five decades, since 
     1948, and is the oldest acreage limitation in the Mineral 
     Leasing Act. Over this time frame Congress and/or the BLM has 
     revised acreage limits for other minerals to meet the needs 
     of the respective industries. Currently, the sodium lease 
     acreage limitation of 15,360 acres per state is approximately 
     one-third of the per state Federal lease acreage cap for coal 
     (46,080 acres) and potassium (51,200 acres) and one-sixteenth 
     that of oil and gas (246,080 acres).
       (6) Three of the four trona producers in Wyoming are 
     operating mines on Federal leaseholds that contain total 
     acreage close to the sodium lease acreage ceiling.
       (7) The same reasons that Congress cited in enacting 
     increases in other minerals' per state lease acreage caps 
     apply to trona: the advent of modern mine technology, changes 
     in industry economics, greater global competition, and need 
     to conserve the Federal resource.
       (8) Existing trona mines require additional lease acreage 
     to avoid premature closure, and are unable to relinquish 
     mined-out areas to lease new acreage because those areas 
     continue to be used for mine access, ventilation, and 
     tailings disposal and may provide future opportunities for 
     secondary recovery by solution mining.
       (9) Existing trona producers are having to make long term 
     business decisions affecting the type and amount of 
     additional infrastructure investments based on the certainty 
     that sufficient acreage of leaseable trona will be available 
     for mining in the future.
       (10) To maintain the vitality of the domestic trona 
     industry and ensure the continued flow of valuable revenues 
     to the Federal and state governments and products to the 
     American public from trona production on Federal lands, the 
     Mineral Leasing Act should be amended to increase the acreage 
     limitation for Federal sodium leases.

     SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF MINERAL LEASING ACT.

       Paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of section 27 of the 
     Mineral Leasing Act (41 Stat. 448; 30 U.S.C. 184(b)(2)) is 
     amended by striking ``fifteen thousand three hundred and 
     sixty acres'' and inserting ``30,720 acres''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Utah (Mr. Hansen) and the gentleman

[[Page H12010]]

from Puerto Rico (Mr. Romero-Barcelo) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3063, a bill to amend the 
Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 with respect to limitations upon the amount 
of acreage an entity may hold within any one State. This bill would 
grant discretion to the Secretary of the Interior to raise the 
statutory limitation upon the amount of acreage a company may hold on a 
statewide basis for sodium leases and permits.
  Mr. Speaker, the current limit was established by a 1948 amendment to 
the Mineral Leasing Act and was set at 15,360 acres, a reasonable size 
at that time during mining. But, Mr. Speaker, a modern operation 
requires a mine-plant complex which may cost well over $300 million to 
build.
  Like other industries today, consolidation to achieve higher 
efficiency is taking place in this soda ash business. H.R. 3063 before 
us today would give the Secretary of the Interior the authority to 
raise the now too low acreage limit, after he has, in due course, 
determined it would not be anticompetitive to do so. Otherwise, Federal 
lessees may need to surrender mined-out leases before backfilling 
underground voids with tailings currently stored on the surface, a 
method which the Bureau of Land Management would like to see remain 
available.
  Also, solution mining of the underground pillars left in place cannot 
occur if the leases are returned to the Government prematurely. From a 
royalty flow viewpoint, it is desirable for our domestic industry to 
have these options available.
  The administration testified last month before the Subcommittee on 
Energy and Mineral Resources in support of H.R. 3063.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  (Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3063 would amend the Mineral 
Leasing Act to grant the Secretary of the Interior the discretion to 
increase a number of Federal leases which may be held by any one 
producer in a single State.
  The present acreage limitation for sodium leases of 15,360 acres has 
been in place for 5 decades. The bill would increase the limitation to 
30,720 acres per producer.
  The U.S. soda ash producers, four of which are in Wyoming, are 
competitive with one another for a share of their relatively flat 
domestic market. They are also faced with strong international 
competition. Wyoming generates approximately 2 million tons of soda ash 
per year. Other countries, including China and India, with vast 
supplies of Trona have erected tariff and nontariff barriers to support 
their own less efficient producers, making it difficult to export U.S. 
soda ash.
  The gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin) believes that giving the 
Secretary of Interior the discretion to raise acreage limitations will 
have a beneficial effect on the industry's ability to remain 
competitive.
  Congress set forth acreage limits in the Mineral Leasing Act to 
ensure that no single entity held too much of any single mineral 
reserve. The lease limitation ensures that there is sufficient 
competition while providing an incentive for development of these 
reserves and ensuring a reasonable rate of return to the Federal and 
State treasuries.
  We expect any future Secretary of the Interior who uses this 
discretionary authority to raise acreage limitations for sodium leases 
to include a finding that raising an acreage for a producer would not 
have a negative effect on either Federal royalty revenues or 
competition.
  The Clinton administration testified in favor of this bill. We have 
no objections on passing this under the suspension of the House rules.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers on this, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume 
to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant).
  Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, I support the current bill.
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 3063.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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