Dale Bumpers: “Now, I wonder if the Senator has seen some figures provided by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition as to what the Otter…”

“Now, I wonder if the Senator has seen some figures provided by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition as to what the Otter Creek tracts are worth. Let me preface that statement by saying I think the people who are following this bill are under the assumption that we are going to pay Montana $10 million to offset any economic loss they sustained as a result of our purchase of the New World Mine. There are going to be some jobs lost, and so on, that they would have otherwise gotten. Now, if the Governor of Montana is smart--and I assume he is-- he is not going to negotiate very seriously on this for $10 million because he knows if there is no agreement, he gets the Otter Creek tracts. The Otter Creek tracts are estimated to have a value of $4.26 billion. Now, if the U.S. Government were to lease those lands to somebody under the Mineral Leasing Act, we would charge them a 12.5-percent royalty. Half of the royalty from that coal would go to the State of Montana and the other half would go to the Federal Treasury. If the Governor of Montana is very shrewd, and he can bottle up negotiations and not take the $10 million, which most people assume he is going to be getting, and the State of Montana will wind up with the Otter Creek tracts and own all the coal outright * * * not just get the 12.5- percent royalty. Does the Senator from Washington know what the Federal share of the royalty from this coal would be?”