Posted on 06/30/2016 9:06:27 AM PDT by Olog-hai
The Interior Department is changing the way it values coal mined from public lands in the West to make sure mining companies are not shortchanging taxpayers on sales to Asia and other markets. […]
Under rules in place since the 1980s, companies can sell the fuel to affiliates and pay royalties to the government on that price, then turn around and sell the coal at higher prices, often overseas. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Is there any particular reason why we pay Congress to do their job anymore?
I really don’t have a problem with this, without digging into the major details it looks like this:
Company A agrees to pay US government X% of sale price in exchange for being able to dig up the coal on US Public Lands.
Company A then forms or engages Shell Company B.
Company A sells coal to B for say $10. US Government gets its percentage of $10
Company B then sells it to asia for $20.
Since Company B is just a shill to reduce the royalty obligation to the Fed... I have no issues shutting it down and requiring companies pay their royalties on the price they actually sell the coal for.
There's a couple ways to put coal out of business....
1. Scr** the companie
2. Turn the scr** a little more...
I didn’t see any of those details in the article. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, the Obama administration doesn’t like coal?
Gotta kill those coal mines
It's gonna take military intervention to drive out the snakes. Either ours, or some one else's.
How about the govt makes it illegal to sell to company A, then jacks up the revenue on company b?
If someone else’s, be aware that they will not have our best interests at heart. Those who believe in the US Constitutional definition of freedom and liberty are pretty much restricted to the USA.
Yup. Stir up the ‘windfall profit’ rhetoric and the populace will endorse it every time.
You didn’t see it? Its right there in the excerpt:
“Under rules in place since the 1980s, companies can sell the fuel to affiliates and pay royalties to the government on that price, then turn around and sell the coal at higher prices, often overseas”
What I described is exactly what that sentence is telling you.
Democrats trying to cover Hillary’s adz after she said she would tank the coal industry and Trump won WV because of his support for coal?
Do you have a source where the Interior Department wrote the original rules, or are they just willy Nellie changing Congressional rules? I would assume tax code was written by Congress and can only be changed by Congress.
Admittedly, my opinion is biased to reflect the fact that Obama does not like coal and Obama’s unchecked lawless behavior.
Most likely congress wrote some law and then left the details up to the departments for implementation details, must like most of the federal government.
Well, unless proven otherwise, it is best to assume that it is another illegal action on the part of the Obama administration. Especially since they have a well known hatred of coal.
From what I know Western Coal is low grade coal.
Compliance coal used by power companies mandated by the Feds had to be 12500 BTU’s low ash and low sulfur content.
Our coal was 13500 to 14000 BTU’s less than 1% sulfur and 3 to 4% ash. Our coal was purchased to bring crap coal up to specs therefore the coal companies that mixed ours with their crap coal had to pay us top dollar.
Most likely we are not getting the full story as usual.
Once the successfully demonize it they can literally steal from it from overseas buddies.
‘Once the successfully demonize it they can literally steal from it from overseas buddies.’
Probably what they will do to all western coal. They pretty well destroyed the eastern coal business. The town I grew up in is a ghost town now due to Fed actions over the last 45 years. Nothing good seems to ever come out of D.C.
I remember reading articles like you linked to when I was a lurker on FR. Thanks.
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