Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) last week in a hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, questioned Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, regarding the Biden Administration’s red tape regulatory regime that the senator says "continues to strangle economic activity across the country."
As Senator Britt noted in her line of questioning, Alabama’s Warrior Met Coal has applied to develop 24 million tons of metallurgical coal on federal lands adjacent to its current operations in Tuscaloosa County. However, the application has remained untouched by the Biden Administration since May 2022.
A press release from Britt's office says mining coal underground on federal land results in an 8% royalty payment to the federal government, which is projected to amount to more than $500 million in currently untapped federal proceeds in this case. Some of that total would be returned to the State of Alabama for use. The beneficiaries would also include millions in state severance taxes and more than $100 million in economic benefit to the Port of Mobile.
Met coal is a key component in producing steel, which in turn is utilized for critical infrastructure and manufacturing. Additionally, Senator Britt outlined that the main global competitor to American met coal is Chinese met coal, which is not mined with the same environmental standards and economically fuels our nation’s top geopolitical adversary and national security threat.
A video of Senator Britt’s line of questioning can be viewed below: