Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 84 Part 2.djvu/242

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Information, availability.

Moneys.

P u b l i c a t i o n in Federal Register.

PUBLIC LAW 91-581-DEC. 24, 1970

[84 STAT.

public interest. He may include in geothermal leases a provision requiring the lessee to operate under such a reasonable cooperative or unit plan, and he may prescribe such a plan under which such lessee shall operate, which shall adec[uately protect the rights of all parties in interest, including the United States. Any such plan may, in the discretion of the Secretary, provide for vesting in the Secretary or any other person, committee, or Federal or State agency designated therein, authority to alter or modify from time to time the rate of prospecting and development and the quantity and rate of production under such plan. All leases operated under any such plan approved or prescribed by the Secretary shall be excepted in determining holdings or control for the purposes of section 7 of this Act. When separate tracts cannot be independently developed and operated in conformity with an established well-spacing or development program, any lease, or a portion thereof, may be pooled with other lands, whether or not owned by the United States, under a communitization or drilling agreement providing for an apportionment of production or royalties among the separate tracts of land comprising the drilling or spacing unit when determined by the Secretary to be in the public interest, and operations or production pursuant to such an agreement shall be deemed to be operations or production as to each lease committed thereto. The Secretary is hereby authorized, on such conditions as he may prescribe, to approve operating, drilling, or development contracte made by one or more lessees of ^eothermal leases,, with one or more persons, associations, or corporations whenever, in his discretion, the conservation of natural products or the public convenience or necessity may require or the interests of the United States may be best served thereby. All leases operated under such approved operating, drilling, or development contracts, and interests thereunder, shall be excepted in determining holdings or control under section 7 of this Act. SEC. 19. Upon request of the Secretary, other Federal departments and agencies shall furnish him with any relevant data then in their possession or knowledge concerning or having bearing upon fair and adequate charges to be made for geothermal steam produced or to be produced for conversion to electric power or other purposes. Data given to any department or agency as confidential under law shall not be furnished in any fashion which identifies or tends to identify the business entity whose activities are the subject of such data or the person or persons who furnished such information. SEC. 20. All moneys received under this Act from public lands under the jurisdiction of the Secretary shall be disposed of in the same manner as moneys received from the sale of public lands. Moneys received under this Act from other lands shall be disposed of in the same manner as other receipts from such lands. SEC. 21. (a) Within one hundred and twenty days after the effective date of this Act, the Secretary shall cause to be published in the Federal Register a determination of all lands which were included within any known geothermal resources area on the effective date of the Act, He shall likewise publish in the Federal Register from time to time his determination of other known geothermal resources areas specifying in each case the date the lands were included in such area; and (b) Geothermal resources in lands the surface of which has passed from Federal ownership but in which the minerals have been reserved to the United States shall not be developed or produced except under geothermal leases made pursuant to this Act. If the Secretary of the Interior finds that such development is imminent, or that production from a well heretofore drilled on such lands is imminent, he shall so report to the Attorney General, and the Attorney General is authorized

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