Power to spare: conditioning federal resource leases to protect social, economic, and environmental values

Expanding the leasing program to encourage resource development will create social, economic, and environmental impacts which the government has the authority to alleviate. The government is not only not exercising its safeguarding power, but is resisting state and local calls for protection. Coal-leasing examples illustrate the problems throughout the federal leasing program. Impact planning begins with regulations that prescribe standards, but specific effects should be dealt with in land-use planning, environmental impact statements, stipulations in the lease itself, and approval conditions for the mining plan. An analysis of federal leasing authority (constitutional, statutory, judicial, and departmental) goes on to focus on the five areas of off-site, wildlife, transportation, socio-economic, and state/local laws. After a review of the federal record, the point is made that regulation is a duty as well as a power. 215 references. (DCK)