GILLETTE- Federal land managers want to cut 123.6 million tons from a lease by application (LBA) for federal coal in the southern Powder River Basin.

The West Antelope LBA Tract is one of five under consideration in the Bureau of Land Management's South Powder River Basin Coal final Environmental Impact Statement, which was released for a 30-day public comment period on Christmas Eve.

Under the BLM's proposed alternatives, the agency would make available five new leases for a total of 1.5 billion tons of federally-owned coal in a competitive lease process. Antelope Coal Co., a subsidiary of Kennecott Energy, had applied for one new lease tract containing about 3,542 acres and 294 million tons of coal to extend the life of its Antelope coal mine straddling the Campbell and Converse county line in northeast Wyoming.

But the BLM's pared-down version of that lease would contain approximately 2,809 acres and 170.4 million tons, shaving off an area in Campbell County and leaving a large portion in Converse County - a detail Converse County officials are monitoring closely.

"It's a big impact to us," said Converse County Assessor Dixie Huxtable, adding that the Antelope mine is the only active coal mine in the county.

"Coal production alone for 2003 represented about 31 percent of our total assessed valuation," Huxtable said.

Nancy Doelger at the BLM Casper Field Office said Antelope Coal's proposed West Antelope application would have left some areas un-mined for beyond 10 years. The BLM's system for estimating the value of coal lease tracts isn't designed to look that far into the future, Doelger said.

In each of the remaining four LBAs, the BLM has proposed granting the entire acreage and tonnage amounts request, plus more.

Peter Fox, spokesman for Kennecott Energy, said the company will not comment about the BLM's preferred alternative or the proposed reduction of the size of the West Antelope tract.

Alan Rabinoff of the BLM's minerals division in Cheyenne said the agency's preferred alternative for the tract is a reflection of the agency's effort to maximize recovery of the coal resource and to balance competition for the coal.

Antelope Coal produced approximately 26.8 million tons of coal in 2002, all from Converse County. That compares to a total of 359.5 million tons for all 13 active coal mines in Campbell County's portion of the Powder River Basin. In 2003, Antelope began shifting its production from Converse County to Campbell County.

Campbell County Assessor Jerry Shatzer said the county will receive production taxes from the Antelope mine for the first time ever in 2004.

However, the mine's plant operations remain in Converse County. Huxtable said that means the taxable value of the mine that may move back and forth over the county line is the mine's actual production, which accounts for about $108 million in assessed valuation in Converse County.

"We were told they (Antelope Coal) never did anticipate moving entirely out of our county," Huxtable said. "They were just shifting northward, and as I understood they would swing back if they got these new leases and could start mining back this direction."

If approved, the new West Antelope LBA Tract could be in production sometime in 2007, Huxtable said.

The South Powder River Basin Coal Environmental Impact Statement includes five separate LBAs. BLM officials said it commonly groups LBAs together under one EIS for efficient processing.