US lawmakers mull creation of mineral, energy supply data agency

Washington (Platts)--20Sep2006

US House lawmakers on Wednesday began examining a newly introduced bill
that would establish an independent statistical agency responsible for
publishing data on US and global energy and mineral supplies.

Republican sponsors of the bill, H.R. 6080, said US policymakers and
industries need the data because growing foreign demand for coal, oil,
natural gas, minerals and metals, is competing with American needs. They want
to create a Mineral Commodity Information Agency within the Interior
Department that would operate like the Energy Information Administration.

The bill would transform the US Geological Survey's Mineral Information
Team into a 300-person agency with a $30-million budget. Under the
legislation, "the MCIA is to collect, evaluate, assemble, analyze and
disseminate data on the adequacy of mineral commodities relating to the United
States' economic and social needs," according to the House Resources' energy
subcommittee.

Republican Representative Thelma Drake of Virginia, who introduced the
bill September 14, said at a hearing held by the panel that the minerals data
was critical to US business groups, the government and the military. She and
other supporters said their main motivation was the "budgetary assault" by the
Bush administration that threatened the Mineral Information Team.

Democrats said the proposal was ironic, given that congressional
Republicans in the mid-1990s abolished the Bureau of Mines, which reported
mineral data, as part of their "Contract with America."

--Mike Schmidt, mike_schmidt@platts.com

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