The Making of Federal Coal Policy provides a unique record of—as well as important future perspectives on—one of the most significant ideological conflicts in national policymaking in the last decade. The management of federally owned coal, almost one-third of the U.S.'s total coal resources, has furnished an arena for the contest between energy development and environmental protection, as well as between the federal government and the states. Robert H. Nelson has written an important historical document and a useful guide for policy analysts.

Preface ix
Introduction 3
I. The Conservationist Foundations for Federal Coal Management
Introduction 11
1. Conservationism and the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 13
2. Congressional Intent and Opposite Results 23
3. The Strong Opposition to Western Coal Development 30
II. A Coal Program Based on a Planned Market
Introduction 43
4. The Rejection of Central Planning and the Free Market 45
5. A Planned Market Instead of a Free Market 57
6. A New Economic Conservationism to Protect the Environment 70
III. Judicial Insistence on a Conservationist Federal Coal Policy
Introduction 85
7. The Judiciary Debates Its Proper Role in Federal Coal Planning 87
8. The Interior Department Tries to Resume Leasing 97
9. The Judiciary Mandates Central Planning 107
IV. Conservationism Put to the Test
10. A Lesser Role for the Coal Industry 117
11. Central Planning in Operation in the United States 125
12. Setting Coal Leasing Targets 132
13. The Advance and Retreat of Land-Use Planning 152
V. Two Interpretations of Welfare-State Liberalism
14. Interest-Group Liberalism in Practice 167
15. The Rediscovery of the Planned Market 187
VI. A Socialist Experiment in America
Introduction 203
16. Lessons in Political Economy 205
17. The Future of Federal Coal 221
Epilogue 233
Notes 241
Index 257