Making Sure The Taxpayers Get Their Fare Share

America’s public lands belong to all of us. So why are companies paying so little to mine coal on federal lands that they’re shortchanging taxpayers—us—out of our fair share of profits?

Here’s the scoop. The Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana provides 40 percent of the nation's coal production -- nearly all of it on our public land. Coal companies are required to compensate taxpayers for our coal by giving the government a portion of the money they make from it. Unfortunately, evidence has been piling up in recent years that demonstrates the Department of the Interior is not collecting a fair return to the taxpayers on publicly owned coal. In fact, a report from Headwaters Economics found that the federal coal program’s loopholes and subsidies are resulting in Americans missing out on $1 billion annually in royalty payments.

Today in Washington, DC, the Bureau of Land Management hosted the first five of listening sessions designed to invite public comment on what the agency should change about the way it leases coal and how to ensure taxpayers are getting a fair return from public resources. I had the opportunity to lend my voice and share my opinion on the issue and this I what I told Secretary Jewell and BLM Director Neil Kornze :

  1. American taxpayers should get a fair return on all federally-owned resources. The Sierra Club supports updating the royalty rate for coal mined on federal lands to mirror that of federal offshore oil and gas reserves, which is 18.75 percent.

  2. Currently, the federal coal royalty rate for surface mines is set at 12.5 percent but coal companies are paying even less than that because they have figured out how to game the system. They sell coal to subsidiaries and pay the 12.5 percent royalty at that time, before the subsidiaries re-sell the coal overseas for ten times the original amount, royalty-free. This cheats taxpayers out of significant profits. It's time for the BLM to close that loophole.

  3. Updating the royalty rates is a real opportunity to not only to protect our precious lands and climate, but also to protect the financial interests of millions of American taxpayers shortchanged by these big coal companies.

  4. These listening sessions present an opportunity for the agency to consider its role in the President’s climate Action Plan. That’s Secretary Jewell also needs to reject Alton Coal’s proposal to expand its operations onto public lands. This mine would be located right between the iconic landscapes of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park! This proposal doesn’t just threaten these special places, but it would also cause significant harm to the air, water, wildlife and other natural wonders of Southern Utah.

Coal-fired power plants are the nation's single largest source of carbon pollution, and half of all dangerous carbon pollution from fossil fuels extracted on public lands comes from federal coal. If the U.S. is serious about meeting the Obama administration’s climate reduction goals, we need to keep more dirty coal in the ground.

The coal that BLM leases belongs to all of us. Lend your voice at any one the upcoming listening sessions around the country and tell them what you think they should do!