HKS Affiliated Authors
Professor of Public Policy, HKS; Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, FAS
Excerpt
Excerpt
The Real Cost of Coal. James Stock, March 24, 2015, Opinion. "CONGRESS long ago established a basic principle governing the extraction of coal from public lands by private companies: American taxpayers should be paid fair value for it. They own the coal, after all. Lawmakers set a royalty payment of 12.5 percent of the sale price of the coal in 1976. Forty years later, those payments remain stuck there, with actual collections often much less. Lawmakers set a royalty payment of 12.5 percent of the sale price of the coal in 1976. Forty years later, those payments remain stuck there, with actual collections often much less..." Link