Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Act of 2017

Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Act of 2017

This bill withdraws the Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Area in Colorado from: (1) entry, appropriation, and disposal under the public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and (3) operation of the mineral leasing, mineral materials, and geothermal leasing laws.

In exchange for the relinquishment of all of the North Thompson Divide leases or South Thompson Divide leases of a leaseholder, the Department of the Interior may issue to such leaseholder credits for bid, royalty, or rental payments due under federal oil and gas leases on federal land in Colorado. Upon relinquishment, such leases shall be permanently canceled and shall not be reissued.

As a condition for relinquishing South Thompson Divide leases, a leaseholder must permanently relinquish, transfer, and otherwise convey to Interior all of its Wolf Creek Storage Field development rights, excluding any storage rights or related activities within the area.

Interior shall: (1) complete, or shall collaborate with state agencies or institutions of higher education in Colorado to complete, an inventory of all significant methane emissions in the North Fork Valley, including emissions from active, inactive, and abandoned coal mines; (2) carry out a program to lease federal methane from such mines; and (3) enter into discussions to develop a program to facilitate the sale and delivery of such methane that has not been leased to at least one rural electric utility, municipal utility, or energy cooperative with service area boundaries within 100 miles of Paonia, Colorado, to demonstrate the feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and environmental benefits of producing electrical power from methane collected from coal mines.