U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

CONTACT:Stephanie Valencia – 202-228-3630
Cody Wertz 303-350-0032

Sen. Salazar Fights to Get Colorado, Other States Fair Share from Mineral Leasing Activities on Public Lands

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, United States Senator Ken Salazar joined with several of his Republican and Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate to urge the Administration to ensure states receive a fifty percent share of mineral leasing activities on public lands and not include the provision in the Administration’s budget proposal for FY 2009. Under language slipped into the omnibus spending bill late last year at the request of the Bush Administration, states will receive a forty-eight percent share of revenues instead of the fair fifty-fifty split between states and the federal government. The provision takes the two percent of Mineral Leasing Act royalties from states to pay for administrative priorities. If this provision had been in place last year, Colorado would have lost approximately $2.45 million.

In their letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle, the Representatives and Senators wrote, “We strongly disagree with this assertion and oppose the Department taking money that is rightfully owed to our states in order to pay for more federal bureaucracy. It is unconscionable that the Department of the Interior and the Office of Management and Budget would propose to take money from States used to pay for important priorities, including educational improvements, to pay for more program administration. This appropriation does not serve the taxpayers who fund the government nor does it serve the states who allow for energy production to happen within their borders.”

Earlier this month, Senator Salazar along with Congressmen Mark Udall and John Salazar proposed a ‘fix’ to the revenue-sharing issue in their legislative package to address specific issues related to the Roan Plateau and the distribution of federal mineral royalty revenues to Colorado. Specifically, the Salazar, Udall, Salazar bill will repeal that provision and restore the state share of mineral leasing revenues to fifty percent.

The Salazar-Udall-Salazar Roan Plateau and revenue-sharing bill will be introduced in the coming weeks. Specifically, the Salazar-Udall-Salazar federal legislation will do the following:

  1. Transfer excess funds currently, or to be deposited, in the federal Anvil Points oil shale trust fund back to the West Slope to mitigate development impacts in and around the former Naval Oil Shale Reserve in Garfield and Rio Blanco counties. At this time, approximately $80 million is in that federal trust fund. About $20 million will likely be needed to complete cleanup of the Anvil Points superfund site. Following certification that the cleanup has been completed, it is expected that at least $40 million would be left as spillover funds. The Salazar-Udall-Salazar legislation would direct those spillover funds to be spent on or invested in land and water protection and conservation efforts and on roads impacted by the oil and gas development in that area.

  2. Reverse the Bush Administration budget proposal concerning the sharing of oil and gas leasing revenues with the states. In its budget, the Bush Administration reduced the state share from 50% to 48%, and that change was included in the FY 08 Omnibus Appropriations bill signed into law by the President in December. The Salazar-Udall-Salazar legislation would repeal that provision and restore the state share of mineral leasing revenues to 50%.

  3. Direct the federal government to implement the additional protections on top of the Roan Plateau developed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Those additional protections include minimizing the surface and wildlife impacts by stopping development in the most sensitive areas on top of the Roan Plateau. These protections would ensure the wildlife-rich resources on top of the Roan remain intact. Governor Ritter’s proposal is that an additional 16,000 surface acres on top of the Roan Plateau can be protected. The Salazar-Udall-Salazar legislation will ensure that those additional acres will be protected. Representatives Salazar, Udall and Senator Salazar will also explore other ways in which to protect these and possibly additional acres on top of the Roan, as well as areas at the base of the Roan Plateau that provide critical winter wildlife habitats. In addition, the proposed legislation will ensure that Colorado and Federal Government receive the highest revenue possible from any leases on the Roan Plateau by requiring phased leasing or partial leasing rather than leasing all federal lands at once.

 

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