Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 3.djvu/988

 114 STAT. 2010 PUBLIC LAW 106-463—NOV. 7, 2000 Public Law 106-463 106th Congress An Act Nov. 7, 2000 To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to increase the maximum acreage of Federal [S. 2300] 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 Coal Market the United States of America in Congress assembled. Competition Act of 2000. SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 30 USC 181 note. j^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^j^^^ ^^ ^j^^ aQ^^j Market Competition Act of 2000". 30 USC 184 note. 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 Eiffecting the type and amount of additional infrastructure

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