or a quasi-private corporation such as the Communications Satellite Corporation to develop this complex of mineral resources.

I now speak of the advantages of a ComSat-type Corporation.

The ComSat Corporation, as it is familiarly called, comes closer to joining public and private interests in a single business unit than any other commercial organization ever created. Consisting of representatives of authorized communications carriers, representatives of public shareholders, and Presidential appointees, the ComSat board of directors is a unique body. Its decisions are shaped not by the profit motive alone, but also by national policy and, to some extent, international relations. Although the statutes provide that the ComSat Corporation is not "an agency or establishment of the United States Government," the authority given these agencies plus the presence of the appointed board members assure that ComSat will operate differently than the usual private corporation. (40)

Since this committee played a substantial role in the consideration and passage of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, a further detailed analysis of its features and advantages is unnecessary. However, I believe that many of the reasons justifying the creation of ComSat can be applied with equal validity to the development of the oil shale and related sodium minerals of the Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming area. These reasons include: the vastness of the resources involved and the consequent scope of the endeavor necessary to develop them; the uncertainty and novelty of the technology; the substantial and distinct public interest; and the necessity for continuing cooperation between government and industry in the development of the resources.

First, as this Committee is well aware, this nation possesses within the Piceance Creek basin area the richest deposit of mineral resources on earth. The potential oil resources themselves exceed known domestic and foreign liquid petroleum reserves several times over. Yet, difficult as it is to comprehend, discoveries within the past year of extensive sodium mineral deposits, valuable both for alumina and soda ash, have approximately trebled the total value of these mineral lands and deposits. (41) Alumina is, of course, a source of aluminum. According to Bureau of Mines statistics, the United States presently imports about 78% of its aluminum resources in the form of bauxite ore. Soda ash, obtainable from the mineral nahcolite, is a valuable substance used in both the steel and the glass industries. Dawsonite, the source of alumina, is widely disseminated throughout the oil shale in microcrystaline form. Nahcolite occurs in beds, pods, or lenses, primarily, according to initial information, within the center of the Piceance basin. The basin, containing this multiple mineral complex, covers some 2400 square miles.

These facts alone dictate that such extensive mineral deposits can be developed most economically by a single, massive operation. No one company could or should attempt to undertake such an operation. On the other hand, a series of individual mining and retorting or processing operations by individual oil or mining companies would result in only partial extraction of the multiple resources and lack of uniformity in such important matters as conservation and land restoration practices.

Second, as with communications satellite technology in 1961-62, the technology for extraction of oil from shale is still far from accomplished. Much prominence has been given to the possibility of in situ mining, using atomic explosions to fracture the shale. Several proposals for experiments with atomic explosions are being considered actively at this time, with the cooperation of the Atomic Energy Commission. I submit that neither experimentation nor operation of oil shale extraction by atomic explosion should be accomplished without continuing governmental control and congressional supervision.

In addition, the full scientific implications of the presence of sodium minerals in the shale are not comprehended. This multiple-mineral technology stands on roughly the same threshold into the unknown future that satellite technology did in the early 1960's. Must the three minerals be separated, then processed? Or may alumina be extracted from dawsonite in the same retorting process that withdraws oil from shale? If so, would this destroy the nahcolite and prevent production of the soda ash?

All of these questions of technology and dozens of others of a technological and economic nature, have yet to be answered. To institute a leasing program under such circumstances would be the equivalent of authorization of individual communications carriers to establish satellite systems before it was even known whether such a project was feasible. In the case of communications satellites

Congress wisely determined that all interests, public and private, would best be served and protected by a joint effort and that development of a system should follow consolidated efforts toward establishment of a feasible technology. Third, these mineral resources occupy a unique position distinct from other mineral deposits. They are not only from 70% to 80% in public ownership, but their location, depth, richness, and other characteristics are also generally known. Thus, the people of the United States find themselves in possession of a vastly rich combination of mineral resources the returns from which could be put to any number of beneficial public uses. Like the airwaves themselves, these resources represent a distinct and definable public treasure, and therefore public interest.

Purely private development of these mineral resources would fail to promote and protect the public interest just as purely private development of a communications satellite system would have failed to do the same. When the public's stake in any undertaking is so great that it cannot be protected by a single industry or combination of industries, then these circumstances dictate a unique solution-such as the ComSat Corporation. A communications satellite system is not unique merely because it involves international relations and world understanding. Congress sought to promote those objectives, but it also desired a communications system which would be "responsive to public needs and national objectives." (42) So too, these publicly owned mineral deposits of such vast wealth exceed the bounds of mere economic promotion alone; their proper development is of utmost importance to all the people of this nation. They should not be permitted to be carved up into private enclaves from which tremendous corporate profits can be made with only tangential public benefits flowing from their private development. Instead, a solution should be worked out which would permit both adequate return on private investment and maximum protection for and returns to the public. These goals could well be promoted by a ComSat-type organization.

Fourth, like a communications satellite system, development of oil shale and related minerals will require extensive and continuous cooperation between private industry and interested Government agencies. The Department of the Interior, through the Bureau of Mines and the Geological Survey, has substantial knowledge and experience in oil shale and other mineral matters, and through various other offices the Department has primary responsibility for establishing administrative policies toward petroleum and other mineral development. Whatever course is adopted toward the mineral resources in the Piceance basin, the Government, through the Department of the Interior and other agencies, will be vitally concerned.

Public and private interests could best be coordinated through an organization such as Com Sat. Instead of industry development with Government supervision or regulation, these minerals could most expeditiously be developed under coordinated public-private leadership. A multiple-mineral development corporation would, like ComSat, be guided by representatives of both public and private interests, but could also be a private corporation operated for profit with full responsibility to its stockholders. The key to safeguarding the public interest is in representation of that interest in policy-making and in adequate regulation by responsible Government agencies.

Congress specifically designed the Communications Satellite Corporation to prevent monopolization of a public resource by a few interests. (43) As has been pointed out, many of the justifications for the creation of such a corporation apply equally to development of oil shale and its associated minerals. A private undertaking with proper public participation would largely solve problems of the monopoly and antitrust sort which obviously arise with regard to the future disposition of these mineral deposits. A multiple-mineral development corporation should include small corporate interests as well as the large, established oil and mining interests. In this way, the public interest is further promoted by participation of those who would otherwise be barred due to competitive disadvantages.

Finally, there are other similarities of circumstances between development of a communications satellite system and development of these mineral deposits: in both cases there are extremely high capital costs; in both cases there is a public interest in providing equitable access to the resource; in both cases development has traditionally been a private enterprise matter: in both cases there exists the threat of monopolization and exclusion of smaller interests: in both cases the resource involved is in public ownership and under Government control.

For these and other reasons detailed in this statement, I encourage Congress and this Committee to investigate with all thoroughness the possibility of establishing a multiple-mineral development corporation, patterned after the Communications Satellite Corporation, to achieve the maximum benefits from the opportunity provided by this complex and interrelated mineral occurrence. In his introduction to Secretary Udall's book, The Quiet Crisis, President John F. Kennedy said:

"We must develop new instruments of foresight and protection and nurture in order to recover the relationship between man and nature..."

PROBLEM OF EXISTING CLAIMS

I turn now to my second topic. This is the problem of existing claims and leases on oil shale lands particularly in Western Colorado. Secretary Udall spoke of this problem in his policy statement in his testimony before the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs of the Senate on February 21, 1967. He said:

"The task of clearing away a half century of legal underbrush will be time consuming, vexatious and difficult but it is a necessary prerequisite to the long term development of the lands in question."

Mr. Secretary, members of the Committee, I suggest that this legal underbrush is in a large part the Department's own doing. For many years, the Department has been indecisive, vacillating, confused and even at war with itself in this regard. It has lost sight of the principle of the natural heritage and the rights of the people and has all too often shown a clear bias toward industry. Further, Secretary Udall, himself, has shown indecision and procrastination. I am informed that several persons inside and outside the Department requested him, many months ago, to withdraw the shale lands from patenting for dawsonite and nahcolite and to restrict sodium leasing. However, the Secretary did not act until January 27, 1967. (44) In the meantime, at least four thousand claims have been filed, embracing perhaps 450,000 acres of public land (45); thereby unduly complicating the oil shale development process.

Secretary Udall did ask the Congress for a federal law for the registration of all claims so that he would at least know where he stood. This is an excellent idea, for without such registration the shadow of the claims could remain forever. But I suggest that we must go further.

I propose that the Congress should adopt legislation reaffirming the rights of the American people and the title of the federal government to all of these disputed lands. However, since at least some of the claims were filed and preserved in good faith (although I add parenthetically that I believe that most of them are fraudulent) legitimate claims should be recognized as having certain property rights. Therefore, I suggest that the legislation should provide a method for the compensation of just claims for reasonable out-of-pocket expenses involved in establishing the claims and maintaining them over the years. This legislation should apply primarily to claims which originated before 1920. As for recent claims for dawsonite and nahcolite and sodium I believe that these should be disallowed by legislative fiat.

But we must not be too harsh on the Department of the Interior. In the law and in the judicial interpretation of the law the Natural Heritage Doctrine is largely implicit and unstated, while the law of property is buttressed by countless statutes and interpretations. For example, in finding against the Department and in favor of the plaintiffs' claims to valuable shale lands, Judge William Doyle of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado had this to say only last December:

"In support of his holding that he had jurisdiction, the Solicitor pointed to the language in Virginia-Colorado to the effect that the Secretary had authority by appropriate proceedings to determine that a claim was invalid for lack of discovery fraud, or other defect, or that it was subject to cancellation by reason of abandonment. From this he concluded that the Department at all times retained jurisdiction; that is, power over these claims. As we view it, this was an unjustified interpretation of the decisions of the Supreme Court. It overlooked the basic nature in terms of property of a mining location. Both Krushnic and Virginia-Colorado proceeded on a fundamental proposition that this creates a vested property right which can be defeated only by a competitor. Historically, this was the nature and character of the mining claim and to overlook it is to change a fundamental rule of property. No amount of administrative legerdemain can overcome this fundamental principle." (46)

But is there really such a fundamental rule or fundamental principle? And if there might be, does it really take precedence over the natural rights of two hundred million Americans to enjoy abundant and low cost energy from shale? It is my position that the property rights of the few are subordinate to the rights of many to participate in the natural heritage; and I submit that it is the responsibility of Congress, as representative of the sovereign people, to adopt legislation which will protect and ensure these rights.

SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC LAND LAW REVIEW COMMISSION

It is particularly appropriate for the Congress to review and restate the Natural Heritage Doctrine at this time. Our natural resources laws have become so numerous, so complex and even contradictory that the entire situation is being reviewed at this time by the Public Land Law Review Commission (47), and no doubt the Congress will be asked to consider changes in these laws in due course. Here is an opportunity for great good or great harm. The recodification of laws could be managed in ways which would further facilitate private exploitation; or could be organized in the spirit of the Natural Heritage Doctrine, holding the interest of the people to be paramount. Since the recodification of present law is intimately related to new legislation concerning shale, I urge the Congress to consider these two subjects in a common light.

WINDFALL PROFITS IN OIL SHALE

Finally, Mr. Chairman, Secretary Udall further stated in his policy release of January that oil shale development must be undertaken in such a way as to "prevent speculation and windfall profits." (48) Gentlemen, in this matter the Department of the Interior has been singularly obtuse. Speculation has been rife for four or five years and windfall profits have been realized. Also the kind of speculation most damaging of all to the American people has been going on for years. That is of the claim or purchase of oil shale lands by petroleum interests for the purpose of holding the land off the market and postponing the development of the industry. Thus the great opportunities for windfall profits still lie in the future and these could be prevented by the legislation which I suggest.

SCANDAL IN COLORADO: DANGER OF "GIVEAWAYS"

Gentlemen of the Senate, the natural heritage of the American people must be protected. We must avoid the greatest giveaway in the history of our nation. If we do not, Senator Hansen, please forgive me, the ensuing scandal will cause Teapot Dome to pale into insignificance. I use the word "scandal" advisedly, in the sense of "something which is shocking to the sense of truth, decency, or propriety" and which is "a cause of reproach." For the giveaway is already in progress. For example, in Colorado, the Governor has urged that the shale oil corporations be given excessive federal tax depletion allowances, and that the industry be allowed import quotas under the present quota system. Further, the legislature in Colorado, acting in almost total secrecy, has exempted oil shale from the current severance tax in Colorado (49), probably unconstitutionally; and has provided for a 272% income tax depletion allowance for oil shale mined in Colorado. (50) Thes actions are indeed scandalous-a cause for serious reproach. Neither the Governor, nor his Director of Natural Resources, nor his advisors, nor the majority of the legislature seem even to have heard of the Natural Heritage Doctrine. Instead they display unbecoming eagerness to grant special privileges to an already privileged industry.

RESPONSIBILITY OF CONGRESS AND THE EXECUTIVE

I feel confident that, by contrast, both the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government will be more sensitive to the rights of the people. I am hopeful that the Department of the Interior will promulgate regulations, and that the Congress will enact legislation, consistent with the sovereign rights, and Natural Heritage of the American people.

For the immediate future it is appropriate for the Secretary of the Interior to proceed with the types of action outlined in his first, fourth and fifth pointsclearing of title, cooperation with the Atomic Energy Commission, and organizing a program of research. However, I urge the Congress to forestall any "blocking

out" or leasing until appropriate legislation can be enacted. I hope that this can be done by the present Congress.

NOTES.

1. For informative historical studies regarding the disposition of the public domain, see Robbins, Our Landed Heritage (1962), and Carstensen, The Public Lands (1963).

2. The minerals are dawsonite, a sodium aluminum carbonate and potential ore of aluminum, and nahcolite, a sodium carbonate. See Brown, The Associated Minerals Dilemma and the New Federal Oil Shale Policy, 39 University of Colorado Law Review (1967), and Milton and Smith Dawsonite in the Green River Formation of Colorado, 61 Economic Geology 1035 (1966).

3. Oil and Gas Journal, p 65, March 9, 1964.

4. Denver Post, April 7, 1967, p. 4.

5. Department of the Interior Press Release, January 27, 1967.

6. Noyes, The Institution of Property, p. 292.

7. Report of the National Conservation Commission, Vol. 1, p. 110 (1909). 8. See Noyes, op. cit. supra note 6, at 221.

9. Ciriacy-Wantrup, Resource Conservation, p. 145. See also, Gustafson, et al., Conservation in the United States at 10.

10. E.g., the Homestead Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 392.

11. Bloomenthal, Multiple Mineral Development on the Public Domain, 9 Wyoming Law Journal 139 (1954).

12. 13 Stat. 440 (1865).

13. 16 Stat. 217 (1870).

14. 17 Stat. 91 (1872). 15. 12 Stat. 392 (1862).

16. 19 Stat. 377 (1877).

17. Theodore Roosevelt, Message to the National Conservation Commission, 1909. 18. Zimmerman, Conservation in the Production of Petroleum, p. 28.

19. Clark, Atlantic Monthly 106 (Sept. 1910), 326.

20. 11 American Jur. 1034.

21. State v. Dexter, 202 P. 2d 906, affirmed without opinion, 338 U.S. 863 (1949). 22. See, for example, The Minnesota Severance Tax on Iron Ore. Oil Shale revenues for education were of concern to the Oil Shale Advisory Board established by Secretary Udall. See Barry, A National Policy for Oil Shale: Factors to be Considered, Colorado School of Mines Second Symposium on Oil Shale, 104 (1965).

23. Noyes, The Institution of Property, P. 292. Theodore Roosevelt once stated that:

"If we allow great industrial organizations to exercise unregulated control of the means of production and the necessities of life, we deprive the Americans of today and of the future of industrial liberty, a right no less precious and vital than political freedom. We should do all in our power to develop and protect individual liberty, individual initiative, but subject always to the need of preserving and promoting the general good. . . . No man and no set of men should be allowed to play the game of competition with loaded dice." (Address to the National Conservation Commission, 1909.)

24. Normally 160 to 640 acres.

25. Settlement, and revenue were the prime objectives. See, Congress Globe 42nd Congress 2nd Session 534 (1872).

26. Report of the Land Commissioner, 1885, p. 201.

27. Report of the National Conservation Commission, p. 70.

28. Id. at 93.

29. Id. at 135.

30. Id at 154.

31. Van Hise. The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States 1 (1910). The doctrine is even traceable to Rosseau, who, in the Social Contract, argued that Man's rights to land extend only to those necessary for his subsistence.

32. Adams, The Science of Finance (1898).

33. Cong. Record, p. 8, H 739, January 30, 1967.

34. Ackerman, Population and Natural Resources, Readings in Resource Man. agement and Conservation (Burton & Kates, eds.)

35. 47 U.S.C. §§ 701-744 (1964).