Description:
S. 534 would withdraw roughly 4,300 acres of federal land in New Mexico from hardrock mining, mineral and geothermal leasing, and disposal under mineral materials laws, subject to valid existing rights. That is, the bill would not allow new mineral extraction from that land, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Using information from BLM, CBO expects that the proposed withdrawal area has high potential for sand and gravel extraction and minimal potential, if any, for development of all other minerals. However, CBO has no basis to estimate whether BLM will execute contracts for materials extraction on the affected land. In the absence of specific information, CBO uses a 50 percent probability that such contracts will be executed under current law. On that basis, and accounting for payments to counties of 5 percent, we estimate that net federal receipts from sand and gravel production in the proposed withdrawal area would total about $2 million over the 2023-2033 period. (Those receipts are recorded as reductions in direct spending.) Under the bill, the federal government would forgo those receipts starting in 2026, the earliest that CBO expects production of those materials could commence. Thus, CBO estimates that enacting S. 534 would increase direct spending by $2 million over the 2023-2033 period. Based on the costs of similar activities, CBO estimates that any administrative costs incurred by BLM to implement the withdrawal would be insignificant; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
