Ken Salazar joins effort to stop feds from taking more of the pie

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has joined a bipartisan group urging the
Bush administration to back away from a plan that reduces funding states
receive from federal mineral leasing.

In a letter to U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and
Office of Management and Budget director Jim Nussle, a group of Republicans
and Democrats in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate said
they strongly opposed the reduction.

“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,” the group wrote.

Last month, language was slipped into a $555 billion appropriations bill
that reduces the current share of revenues states receive from leases for
energy and mineral extraction on federal lands by 2 percent. The reduction
means states get 48 percent of the proceeds, and the federal government 52
percent.

The 2 percent taken away from states will be used for “administrative
priorities,” according to a statement from Salazar. Had the provision been
in place last year, Colorado would have lost about $2.45 million, the
statement said.

Earlier this month, Salazar, along with U.S. Reps. John Salazar, D-Manassa,
and Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, said they would introduce
legislation that would reverse the federal mineral leasing change. Also
included in their proposed legislation is language that would require the
federal government to follow Gov. Bill Ritter’s recommendations for the Roan
Plateau near Rifle, which include doubling the lands designated for
environmental protection and implementing phased leasing for federal mineral
leases on the Roan.

The legislation proposed by the Salazars and Udall would also transfer an
estimated $80 million in the Anvil Points oil shale trust fund back to
Colorado and the Western Slope. About $20 million is needed to clean up the
former Anvil Points oil shale research site north of Rulison. The proposed
legislation would direct $40 million in “spillover funds” to water and land
conservation efforts and roads impacted by oil and gas development in
Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, according to the Salazars.

The legislation proposed by the Salazars and Udall is expected to be
introduced in coming weeks, according to Salazar’s statement.