[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 122 (Thursday, August 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S9006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. UDALL, of Colorado (for himself and Mr. Bennet):
  S. 1602. A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that 
excess oil and gas lease revenues are distributed in accordance with 
the Mineral Leasing Act, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Armed Services.
  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, today I am introducing a 
revised version of the Naval Oil Shale Reserve Mineral Royalty Revenue 
Allocation Act that I previously introduced on August 4, 2009. This 
bill is the same as the one I previously introduced, but it corrects an 
error regarding the allocation of outstanding mineral royalties to four 
counties in Colorado instead of two--those four counties being 
Garfield, Rio Blanco, Mesa and Moffat. This revised version also makes 
it clear that the mineral royalty allocated to these four counties 
would not affect the normal allocations to those counties under the 
``payment in lieu of taxes'' program. In all other respects, the bill 
and its purposes remain the same. It is a bill designed to release 
mineral royalty receipts to Colorado where the receipts were generated 
from gas development within this reserve on the western slope near 
Rifle, Colorado.
  By way of background, in 1997, Congress transferred the federal Naval 
Oil Shale Reserve lands in western Colorado from the U.S. Department of 
Energy, DOE, to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, BLM, and directed 
the BLM to begin leasing the oil and gas resources under these lands. 
The Transfer Act also directed that the royalties recouped from this 
leasing program be set aside and the state portion not disbursed to 
Colorado until the Interior Department and the DOE certified that 
enough money from the royalty receipts accrued to satisfy two purposes.
  The first was to provide funding to clean up the Anvil Points site on 
these lands. Anvil Points was an oil shale research facility that 
operated within the Naval Oil Shale Reserve for about 40 years. The 
facility was operated by DOE at one point, and private industry 
performed research there under contract. Waste material was produced at 
this facility from oil shale mining and processing. That waste 
accumulated in a pile of about 300,000 cubic yards of spent oil shale 
and other material--including arsenic and other heavy metals--which 
rests on slopes below the facility.
  The second purpose was for the reimbursement of certain costs related 
to the transfer.
  Following the transfer to the BLM, this area experienced significant 
natural gas leasing and, as a result, significant royalty revenue was 
generated.
  On August 8, 2008, the DOI and DOE certified that adequate funds had 
accrued to accomplish the goals of cleanup and cost reimbursement and 
subsequently allocated all royalty revenue generated after this date 
according to the Mineral Leasing Act, which establishes that Colorado 
receive a proportionate share.
  However, considerably more revenue accrued than was necessary to 
accomplish the cleanup and cost reimbursement goals. This bill would 
direct that this additional royalty revenue be allocated to Colorado 
according to the formulas and processes established for the 
disbursement of federal mineral royalties under the Mineral Leasing 
Act.
  The bill also directs that the Colorado share of this remaining 
royalty revenue be allocated to the four Counties directly impacted by 
oil and gas leasing on the Naval Oil Shale Reserve lands--specifically, 
Garfield, Rio Blanco, Mesa, and Moffat Counties. Finally, this bill 
makes it clear that these royalty payments shall not affect the funds 
that these Counties normally receive under the ``payment in lieu of 
taxes''--or PILT--program.
  Based on figures provided by the BLM, there remains approximately $17 
million in these accounts for Colorado's royalty revenue share. This 
bill would make Colorado whole and provide it with its rightful share 
of the remaining royalty revenue to address critical local needs and 
impacts from the very leasing that produced the royalty revenue.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 1602

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

     SECTION 1. TREATMENT OF OIL SHALE RESERVE RECEIPTS.

       Section 7439(f) of title 10, United States Code, is amended 
     by adding at the end the following:
       ``(3)(A) The moneys deposited in the Treasury under 
     paragraph (1) that exceed the amounts described in 
     subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2) shall be 
     transferred by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance 
     with section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 191) to 
     the State of Colorado for use in accordance with subparagraph 
     (B).
       ``(B)(i) Of the amounts to be distributed under 
     subparagraph (A), the Secretary of the Treasury shall 
     transfer--
       ``(I) 40 percent to Garfield County, Colorado;
       ``(II) 40 percent to Rio Blanco County, Colorado;
       ``(III) 10 percent to Moffat County, Colorado; and
       ``(IV) 10 percent to Mesa County, Colorado.
       ``(ii) The amounts provided to the counties under clause 
     (i) shall be used by the counties, or any cities or political 
     subdivisions within the counties to which the funds are 
     transferred by the counties, to mitigate the effects of oil 
     and gas development activities within the affected counties, 
     cities, or political subdivisions.
       ``(iii) Amounts provided to the counties under clause (i) 
     shall not be considered for the purpose of calculating 
     payments for the counties under chapter 69 of title 31, 
     United States Code.''.
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