Streamlining and Ensuring Mineral Development Must Begin at Local Land Management Levels

GAO reviewed the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Eastern States Office (ESO) and its responsibilities relating to coal trespass in that area. Rather than managing the surface of huge tracts of public lands as Western BLM offices do, ESO primarily controls the subsurface mineral estate of some 39.7 million acres of federal lands in 31 states. The surface area of 96 percent of these lands is controlled by other federal agencies, but the mineral leasing responsibilities lie with BLM. Therefore, the ESO role is critical to the development of federal minerals in the East.

This current evaluation is a followup to previous efforts to determine how effectively ESO is dealing with potential federal mineral trespass, how timely ESO is in issuing mineral leases and permits, and whether ESO is able to deal with new areas of mineral interest. In its review, GAO found that ESO: (1) has not yet effectively dealt with potential federal minerals trespass in the East, (2) is unable to timely issue mineral leases and permits, and (3) has been unable to effectively deal with new areas of mineral interest because of the Department of Interior's policy toward the development of minerals. Many of the previous problems identified by GAO continue to exist. Therefore, GAO believes that actions are needed to reevaluate and reemphasize these programs. Moreover, efforts to expedite leasing and to protect minerals from trespass at ESO are likely to contribute to increased federal revenues over the long term.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: John W. Sprague Team: General Accounting Office: Energy and Minerals Division Phone: (202) 512-7783