§1304 Surface Owner Protection

Summary

When the United States owns coal under land whose surface is owned by someone else and the coal will be mined by surface methods, the government must not lease that coal until the surface owner gives written permission to enter and begin surface mining. The coal must be offered for lease under the federal rules that govern coal leasing. Any written permission given before August 3, 1977 counts as valid. The government must talk with the surface owner if their land might be put into a lease area and ask whether they want the coal offered for lease. If many surface owners say no, the agency should avoid leasing there when it can. A "surface owner" means the person (or a corporation mostly owned by such people) who owns the surface, lives on it or personally farms or ranches it (or gets a significant part of income from that farming), and has done so for at least three years before giving consent; time when a close relative owned the land can count toward those three years. This does not apply to Indian lands and does not change anyone’s property rights.