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?'~-' -. COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
A WASHINGTON, D.C. 20545
December 1, 1980
B-201298 -
The Honorable Herman E. Talmadge
Chairman, Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition and Forestry
United States Senate
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Subject: Your request for phosphate information
and comments on Section 5 of H.R. 534i
In response to your request of August 29, 1980, we are pro-
viding our comments on Section 5 of H.R. 5341 and information on
the phosphate situation in the United States. You also requested
a technical discussion of how phosphates are graded. This is
discussed in an enclosure and includes our analysis of some
implications.
Section 5 would prohibit the issuance of phosphate leases
in the Osceola National Forest unless and until the United States
by subsequent legislation determines that the mining of the af-
fected phosphate would be necessary to the national interest.
It would give the Secretary of Interior 3 years to determine
whether valuable deposits have been discovered on 41 preference
right lease applications and, if so, to exchange them for leases
covering other minerals elsewhere. In the event that exchanges
cannot be negotiated, the holders of the lease applications would
be entitled to monetary Compensation.
The Department of the Interior has not made a convincing
case that it would be environmentally damaging to mine the phos-
phates now, nor what advantage rests in postponing a mining
decision. We believe that it is premature for the Congress to
favorably consider such action because of the possible adverse
affects on the supply of phosphates. In addition, we consider
that Section 5(b) could raise constitutional issues if preference
right lease applications are held to have valid rights to non-
preference leases.
Our November 30, 1979 report entitled, Phosphates: A Case
Study of a VaIuable, Depleting 1ineral In Armerica, EMD-80-21,
summarized our analysis of phosphate onlicy issues and] concluded
that ensuring an adequate supply of such essential minorals as
EML)-3 1-1 £ 3
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