Mineral Resources

Interior Has Improved Its Administration of Coal Exchanges Gao ID: RCED-87-53 February 17, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Department of the Interior's procedures for administering the trade or exchange of federal coal lands, interest, or leases for privately owned property to determine whether they ensure the: (1) exchange of coal of equal value only; (2) protection of environmental values; (3) protection of the public interest; and (4) prevention of potentially competitive coal land exchanges.

GAO found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM): (1) developed guidelines for determining the value of coal lands, interests, or leases involved in an exchange, and for the most part, followed them in the cases reviewed; (2) followed established procedures for assessing the environmental effects of the exchanges for which it prepared environmental assessments; (3) had public interest criteria for fee exchanges but not for lease exchanges; and (4) did not have a policy to consider alternatives to exchanging potentially competitive lands.

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.

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