The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule to amend regulations for non-energy solid minerals leased by the federal government.
The bureau intends to revise the process necessary for lessees to seek and the agency to grant reductions in royalty rates, rental fees and minimum production requirements for these minerals, including soda ash, potash, phosphate, sodium, potassium, sulfur and gilsonite, according to the proposed rule, which the government published Oct. 9. The proposal seeks to streamline the process for these reductions as well as give the bureau more flexibility to issue an industrywide reduction, increase production and support mineral development as necessary. This rule could give the bureau the freedom to adjust these regulations if needed to develop the minerals.
"Existing regulatory requirements are overly restrictive, inflexible, and burdensome," according to the rule's text.
The Trump administration expects the proposal will save up to $5 million in regulatory costs over the next decade, according to a release. Non-energy mineral development on federal lands contributed $13.4 billion to the economy in fiscal 2017 and supported 48,000 jobs.
Blaine Miller-McFeeley, senior legislative representative at Earthjustice, said the proposed rule would "set off a fire sale of our protected places."
"This proposed rule is yet another step in this Administration's efforts to sell out our public lands to mining corporations at significant public expense," Miller-McFeeley said in an email. "The mining industry already has a great deal, paying inadequate royalties and fees for taking valuable resources from our nation's lands — lands and resources that are owned by all Americans."
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California said in the BLM release that the rule would give the bureau the ability to react to market dynamics and prevent royalty rates on minerals from "hampering responsible resource development and job creation."
"It is critical that U.S. royalty rate policies do not put domestic non-energy mineral producers at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign competitors in a global economy," he said.
The National Mining Association declined to comment on the proposal.
