June 25, 2012 (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis)
“Taxpayers missed out on an estimated $28.9 billion in revenues over 30 years due to the failure of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to get fair market value for U.S.-owned coal mined in the Powder River Basin, which currently produces 44 percent of the nation's coal, according to [The Great Giveaway: An analysis of The United States' Long-Term Trend of Selling Federally Owned Coal for Less Than Fair Market Value] by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)… “…The report calls for a moratorium on additional Powder River Basin coal sales and a full-scale federal investigation of the deeply flawed BLM program…Since 1991, only four out of 26 major Powder River Basin (PRB) coal sales have had more than one bidder, and the small handful that were ‘competitive’ only had two bidders each…[due to] a lack of transparency under which BLM coal-leasing activities neither have been audited nor subjected to any other publicly available external review for almost 30 years…”
click to enlarge“…Located in southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming, Powder River Basin in the U.S. coal picture has increased significantly in the last 40 years. The Department of Interior (DOI), through its agency the Bureau of Land Management, is responsible for the sale of PRB coal. Given that the United States owns almost all the coal in the region, the U.S. government holds an effective monopoly of western coal. As a result, the DOI is extremely influential, shaping U.S. annual coal production levels and the market price of coal… “The report recommends..,[DOI]…should implement an immediate moratorium on the sale of federal coal leases in the Powder River Basin…reinstate the PRB as a Coal Production Region…[to] help the BLM address broader economic issues and set a fairer price…Congress must conduct a fundamental review of the federal coal-leasing program…The General Accounting Office should conduct an audit…[DOI’s] Inspector General should conduct oversight activities… An independent entity should evaluate the [BLM's] coal-leasing program, with specific attention paid to fair market valuation…”
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