Statement on Government Accounting Office (GAO) Audit on Federal Coal Leases
By Tom Sanzillo, Director of Finance, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis –
“The Government Accounting Office (GAO)
affirms that there is no available rationale for how much the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) charges for federally owned coal. There have been no independent assessments of 107 leases over a 23 year period and most leases are not competitive. The GAO audit does not provide information that shows whether BLM is collecting the right revenues.
The GAO tells us BLM does not count high priced export sales in its calculations. This systemic failure provides an undue enrichment to coal companies and a loss of revenue to federal and state government. The GAO tells us that, despite a policy on the books for thirty years to release information about lease sales to the public, BLM simply refuses to do so.
This is the first GAO audit in thirty years. Much is left out. We hope it will not take another thirty years for additional scrutiny of this multi-billion dollar giveaway.”
