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Show Wesiern Resources , Federal coal leasing, part 2 Hylleli'iieC. MonberK ' Vernal Kxpress I tVashl"K1ln Correspondent vysshington-The Interior rvivirtnuMit proudly proclaimed in t ril lhat production from federal coal lis under lease increased by 32 Lrcfnt between the 1980 and 1981 fiscal ars al,d it expects a similar jump in Jutput this fiscal year. gut the continuing economic iwnturn is likely to modify federal vul production during the 1982 fiscal which ends on Sept. 30. Both sales and coal car loadings are fit But red tape remains. Several tracts of federal civil put up ijbid earlier this year including in the -oalrich Powder River Basin in cftheastern Wyoming and Eastern loitana and also in Eastern Utah jjved no bids at all at federal coal lease sales. One Powder River bid was rejected as too low. fle amounts bid at recent federal oal sales, particularly at the Powder jiver sale, were so low that the bids should not have been accepted or the aes should not have been held in the grstplace, according to such critics as 1 sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., and the Western Organization of Resource Councils headquartered in Billings, Mont. This get-government-out-of-industry's hair Administration has been unable to write new federal coal unagement regulations to date. The gal regulations scheduled for release ate this month have been held up for sartial rewriting again, Western Rsiurces Wrap-up (WRW) was told by Se Bureau of Land Management BLMi on July 12. This is the third time iatthe new rules have been held up. : occe scheduled for release in the ; yj-g of 1982, these new rules aren't ; iely to be issued until fall, Interior sources said here this week. Objective: csamline leasing. "v Although claiming to be industry-z industry-z rented and so widely regarded, the - Aministration and the Interior i Department on June 10 passed up an rpwtunity toback an industry -drafted - sponsored by Rep. Ray Kogovsek, E Xolo., and 11 other Congressmen aidy from the West which would serially weaken the due diligence ti. rirement in the present law. That's ' i.quirement to get federal coal leases a. ao production to cut down on the speculation in federal coal that i- rued prior to 1976. - Tbe Union Pacific (UP) Railroad :-sed a lot of Western coal, including cpments from federal coal lands. The : ri 'J NTOR for June reported coal 'z loadings were down from 1981. "Of secern to UP, coal moves in April x. 2.32 cars) were down 17 percent as: !-!I6carsO from the same month last M K.Coal loadings thru the first four :i'Jis of 1982 were six percent (6,958 i- below the same period for 1981," ' IT publication stated. r-'- lie National Coal Association ( NCA ) iiWRWon July 14 coal production for ieek ending July 3 was 11,280,000 :K,as compared to 15,324,000 tons for a same week in 1981. NCA estimated pfltlO percent of this production was a federal coal lands. For the year thru July 3 coal production was 3ra,000 tons, NCA reported, fcouse of a coal strike last year, a prison with 1981 is not valid, it output in 1980 for the same period 4 totalled 421,149,000 tons, said. The 1982 figure is regarded !erthan the 1980 figure because a ber of coal conversions have rred in the past two years, an NCA desman explained. FORT UNION, SAN JUAN NEXT ith the exception of a first-round 'HP sale in Appalachia in Mnber, the next federal coal Mg sales are scheduled for next for Fort Union coal lands in jjm North Dakota and Eastern and for next September for 4th River coal lands in IBLM65'6"1 New Mexico according The Interior Department has yvrget at from 800 million to 1.2 ST ns to be sold at the Fort Union M 12 biUion t0 15 billion t0 o;j aUhe San Juan River sale, BLM Jreon July 14. J' Fort Union coal draft omental impact statement -ieMtXpeCted t0 issued directly, -ziKt m this month or ear'y in as'J;?1 said on July 12. The final Ij c ' Foit Union sale is scheduled ft, plet,on early in 1983 calendar 8ear up for the Fort Union sale, 'C coal team held its initial ':M L ch of 1980 and in APril 5fesZri0r issued a cal1 for ;-4 'ws of interest in leasing in the 'pressi region- 11 received 26 s'Wnt,S f leasin8 interest. Van" 24 tracts were selected '-iter if' "g cons'deration. Of this ;;iini' 3sare in the Golden Valley '9 of Western North 5a o Er? ln the Redwater Planning int Montana. and 2 tracts !'ilySes bth areas. Site specific 'tionsfc tract ranking and ngunt !u made- staff work 4t hlsleasesale in June 1983 n schedule, according to HUM. The sale of San Juan River coal in New Mexico is also moving along as scheduled for September 1983 according to BUM. The management framework plans were updated for the Chacoand San Juan planning units, and environmental assessments were completed for 26 preference right lease applications last year. Only sales in New Mexico are now under consideration, leaving out Colorado lands for a second round lease sale in August 1986. The Regional Coal Team recommended between 800 million and 1.5 billion tons of New Mexico coal as the target range for the 1983 first-round San Juan River sale. Gov. Bruce King, D-N.M., urged that the sale be limited to 1.5 billion tons, and Interior set the target range at between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion tons on Jan. 25. Industry has indicated an interest in leasing up to 1.6 billion tons of coal in the region, primarily because the Public Service Co. of New Mexico has announced plans to build another coal-fired electric generating plant up to a capacity of 2,000,000 kilowatts in the area. (More of this plant in WRW later.) The draft EIS on the San Juan coal sale is expected to be completed in November of this year, and the final EIS at the end of April or the first of May in 1983, BLM said here on July 14. UINTA-SOUTHWESTERN UTAH. GREEN RIVER-HAMS FORK Second round lease sales are scheduled to take place in February 1984 on federal coal lands in the Uinta-Southwestern Uinta-Southwestern Utah Region and in March 1984 on federal coal lands in the Green River-Hams Fork Region in Southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado. The leasing target for the second Uinta sale ranges between 1.6 billion and 2.1 billion tons of coal on federal lands in central Utah, the Alton area of Southern Utah and in Delta County, Colo. The Kaiparowits Plateau, where environmental problems foreclosed an earlier major coal development, will not be considered for federal coal leasing until 1986 at the earliest. Assistant Interior Secretary Garrey E. Carruthers announced on April 5. Only a limited amount of coal in the Alton area will be offered, the Utah State Office of BLM announced on June 21. i. . . i The coal industry has expressed interest in leasing about 280,000 acres of coal lands in Utah, about half in central and half in southern Utah, the state office said. The Colorado State Office of BLM announced on Feb. 25 that about 9000 acres of coal in Delta County had received expressions of coal leasing interest. BLM said here on July 12 the larger tract in Delta County is located three miles north of Paonia and the smaller tract is located six miles west of Cedar Edge in Western Colorado. All acreage will be considered for leasing in the next Uinta sale. Uinta has been a very active coal leasing area. Following release of a final EIS, the first round sale of federal coal was held in July 1981, and five tracts were sold on July 30, 1981. Subsequently six more tracts were offered for sale, all in Emery County in Central Utah, four on Feb. 25 two on May 27. Five tracts were sold. The North Horn Mountain Tract containing 10,999 acres of recoverable reserves estimated at 112.1 million tons of coal, with a minimum acceptable bid of $3,567 per acre, received no bids and will be offered at the next Uinta sale, according to the Utah State Office of BLM. The Utah State Office announced on Jan. 12 that eight preference right lease applications of the Utah Power and Light Company (UP&L) had finally been converted into an 18,324-acre coal lease south of Escalante, Utah, in the Kaiparowits Coal Field in Southern Utah The 1978 Coal Leasing amendments (PL 95-554) allowed for the exchange of preference right applications ap-plications for coal leases, providing the amount of land involved was of equal value. An attempted earlier exchange failed in June 1981 because of disparity in the value of the coal involved, according to the Utah State Office. UP&L's preference was to exchange its eight preference rights in the Kaiparowits Plateau for a coal lease in Emery County, Utah, but when that didn't work out, UP&L settled for the Southern Utah lease containing an estimated 1 billion tons of in-place coal. The final EIS on the second Uinta sale is due for completion in July 1983, with the draft to be completed in December 1982, said BLM. In preparation for the second round Uinta sale a management frame-work plan (MFP) for the Price River area was completed last year, and the Henry Mountains plan is to be completed this year in Utah. An amended North Fork plan and the Glenwood Springs plan are to be completed this year in Colorado Work is also proceeding on the Grand and Cedar Beaver plans and three National Forest plans in Utah in 1983 and 1984. BLM plans the second round lease sale for Green River-Hams Fork to be held in March of 1984, but there appears to be some slippage in this schedule, and the sale is likely to be a month or so later than planned. BLM says the draft EIS is due for completion in May of 19B3 and the final EIS in October, 19R3. EIS's have to be done for second round sales, BLM explained on July 14, because they are site specific, on the basis of the tracts finally selected for lease. Green River was the first region selected for leasing after the leasing moratorium was lifted in 1980. Three sales of tracts were held last year on Jan. 13-14, in April and in October, at which nine tracts were sold, five in Colorado and four in Wyoming. Planning on specific areas within this region is completed on Salt Wells, Pioneer Trails, Overland, Divide and is due to be completed on Big Sandy in November in Wyoming. Likewise, planning on specific areas in this region is completed on White River and Williams Fork and is due to be completed on Kremmling in September 1983 in Colorado. BLM is scheduled to start work on the updated EIS in September, following calling for expressions of interest in leasing as the planning units are completed. BLM has just concluded its first round lease sale of the Powder River Region, on April 28, but plans are already underway for a follow-up sale and a second round sale, to be held in June of 1984. Land-use planning is to be completed in the next year or so on three new areas within the region in Wyoming Western Power River, Recluse and Thunder Basin National Grasslands and other portions of the Powder River Basin in Montana in time for the second round sale. BLM has withdrawn Oklahoma and Eastern and Southeastern Colorado and Colfax County, N.M., as regional areas, due to lack of industry interest. Those interested in leasing U.S. coal lands in these areas can apply directly to BLM. |