Senator wants to suspend coal sales on federal lands in West
BILLINGS, Mont. — A U.S. senator said Tuesday he will ask fellow lawmakers to halt coal sales on federal lands in the West after a senior Obama administration official declined to suspend the troubled government program.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said the Interior Department moved too slowly on promised reforms since the Democrat raised concerns earlier this year that “bargain-basement” lease sales to a handful of mining companies might have cost taxpayers $200 million or more.
Investigators from the Government Accountability Office and the Interior Department have found a widespread lack of competition in the sale of coal leases on federal lands, including instances where federal officials accepted below-market bids. Problems with the program date to the 1980s, when a three-year moratorium was put in place while new leasing procedures were adopted.
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