Mark Haggerty, an analyst with the nonpartisan research group, Headwaters Economics, in Bozeman, Mont., says he sympathizes with the need to move to cleaner fuels but says industry has a point. Transitioning to natural gas is a long-term investment, he says. “We will become dependent on natural gas, and its price is volatile, more so than coal.”
…Haggerty says the effective royalty rate is actually more like 5 percent, because coal is sometimes sold through company-affiliated brokers, complicating the calculation of the value of coal sales….In any case, the Interior Department is considering raising the minimum royalty rate. Haggerty says that’s a good idea and urges the federal government to establish a trust that would hold federal coal revenues for the benefit of struggling coal communities across the country.
