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![handle is hein.congrecreports/crptxaaoh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATEO
U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
Gp
115TH CONGRESS REPORT
1st Session HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 115-288
COOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT OF MINERAL RIGHTS ACT
OF 2017
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State
of the Union and ordered to be printed
Mr. BISHOP of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources,
submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany H.R. 2316]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred the
bill (H.R. 2316) to amend the Mineral Leasing Act and the Energy
Policy Act of 1992 to repeal provisions relating only to the Alle-
gheny National Forest, having considered the same, report favor-
ably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do
pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 2316 is to amend the Mineral Leasing Act
and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to repeal provisions relating only
to the Allegheny National Forest.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
The Allegheny National Forest (ANF), located in northwestern
Pennsylvania, spans 517,000 acres and is home to a robust oil and
gas industry. The ANF is located just 15 miles from the first com-
mercial oil well drilled in the United States. The federal govern-
ment, through the Department of Agriculture, acquired the surface
land in 1923 to create the national forest, with private owners re-
taining title to the subsurface mineral estate. Private mineral own-
ers have the right to develop their interests, and are entitled to
reasonable use of the surface to access their minerals, pursuant to
the Weeks Act (36 Stat. 961). Until 2008, private mineral owners
worked cooperatively with the Forest Service to develop oil and gas
resources. The mineral owners routinely provided 60-day notifica-
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