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Show Rep. Brown bill would use syn-tfuels money for impactf eeiei By Helene C. Monberg Rep. Hank Brown, R.-Colo., would reserve 10 percent of the money available to the Synthetic Fuels Corporation Cor-poration to guarantee bonding for local impacts of energy projects, he told this correspondent in an interview June 18. Under legislation enacted into law last year, the new Synthetic Fuels Corporation, which will become operational July 1, is authorized to provide $20 billion to industry to develop synthetic oil and gas, mainly from coal and oil shale. So Rep. Brown would reserve 10 percent of that amount for local impacts due to energy developments in oil shale country and in coal country where a gasification or liquefaction project is involved. Brown said, "I have prepared a draft bill which I plan to send to all of the members of the Congressional delegation, to the governor and to others who might be interested," he mentioned, in passing, Rep. Dan Marriott, R-Utah. "The idea of the bill is to help local communities with front-end front-end money without making any big new expenditures of federal funds. It is realistic, in light of the budget situation here," he said. "I don't want my bill to be partisan. I want it to have bipartisan bi-partisan support," Brown emphasized. Sen. William L. Armstrong, R-Colo., called it "an interesting concept." "I have not seen Hank's draft bill yet, but I'd like to see it," Armstrong said in a separate interview June 18. The big difference between the Brown proposal and earlier impact aid bills is that the Synthetic Fuels Corporation Cor-poration would guarantee bonds to cover the up front local costs of public facilities and services such as schools, hospitals and clinics, more police and munities such as Craig, Colorado and Vernal, Utah, sure to be hit by these needs when new syn-fuels projects get going in their area. The bill which Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., D-Colo., introduced on May 23 is the classic energy impact aid package which he has introduced since he has been in the state. It provides $1.5 billion in federal guarantees for loans by states, local governments and Indian . tribes, and $400 million per year in loans and grants to state governments and to Indian tribes during the fiscal years from 1982-85. The Hart bill has not been able to get thru Congress in the past, and the budget situation this year makes its chances even more unlikely this year. Hart has said, however, he is looking for innovative ways to finance impact aid due to energy developments, and following submission of his 1981 bill to interested parties, he might amend it. Meanwhile, both Senate and House subcommittees with jurisdiction over mining legislation have held hearings or plan to hold hearings on oil shale and tar sands. The House Mining Subcommittee Sub-committee has held two such hearings to date, in Vernal on May 29 and here on June 18, and the Senate Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee plans an oil shale hearing before the end of the month. So Hart introduced his long-heralded oil shale bill June 16. Among the provisions of the Hart bill is one requiring the prepayment of rentals and royalties of "of not less than eight percent of the value of the oil shale" on leases issued in the future to mitigate local impacts. Bonus payments and other advance payments may also be required of the energy company coming into a com- munity "to provide in a timely manner community planning and public facilities and services for the affected communities," based on a finding by the Secretary of Interior on recommendation recom-mendation of the local governor, Hart said. The Hart bill also provides for diligent development of an oil shale lease, multi-mineral leasing (except that coal can't be extracted on an oil shale lease; an additional lease of up to 6,400 acres to holders of oil shale leases for disposal of waste and building retorts and other facilities of process "oil" from shale it the Secretary of Interior finds such an additional lease is in the public interest; in-terest; allows for only one additional oil shale multi-mineral lease pending a comprehensive study by the Interior Department including a com prehensive regional management plan for "balanced" long-term use of federally-owned oil shale lands and the issues associated with additional oil shale leasing; keeps the present lease acreage of 5.210 acres under the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act but allows for additional leasing of up to 2,560 acres per company where land is checker-boarded checker-boarded and small parcels of federal land might otherwise be bypassed, or where "oil shale deposits are so thin" that more than 5,120 acres are "necessary to support a commercial oil shale plant." The bill also provides for competitive bidding for leases, requires that revenues going to a state as a result of oil shale development be used to assist affected communities, with prepayment of royalties to help with community impacts. " i1 L., . - i SHERIFF ARDEN STEWART and Phil Brewer took first in the state two-man slow fire team shoot. 1 i 4 4 y j j I X I . , - I V ' ; " 'I.? V T-K.-r- AIRPLANE FLIES low over fire last Saturday behind Petrc' -Chem east on Highway 40. No damages were reported in thi-fire. thi-fire. The fire was directly in line with the Vernal landing strip.' |