WASHINGTON, DC — The Industrial Minerals Association – North America (IMA-NA) released the following statement on the U.S. Department of Interior’s action to lower the federal royalty rate for soda ash.
“The IMA-NA would like to thank the U.S. Department of Interior’s Secretary David Bernhardt for taking action on lowering the soda ash industry’s federal royalty rate from 6 percent to 2 percent for a period of 10 years.
This action was necessary in order to enable the U.S. soda ash industry to against their primary competitors in China and in the global marketplace. China has long used questionable trade practices in heavily subsidizing its industry, which has given the Chinese a competitive advantage against U.S. soda ash producers.
DOI’s action promotes the cleaner, greener version of soda ash, as the natural soda ash produced in the United States emits 2-3 times less carbon dioxide and uses far less energy than Chinese competitors who use a synthetic method for producing their soda ash.
Today’s action is a culmination of several years of educating Congress and the Administration on the need to enact strong policies to allow for the United States to be more competitive globally in the international soda ash market.
This initiative has received strong bipartisan, bicameral support. IMA NA would like to especially offer our sincere gratitude to Senators John Barrasso, Mike Enzi, Ron Wyden, Dianne Feinstein, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Congressmen Liz Cheney and Paul Cook, and Senator-elect Cynthia Lummis for their leadership and hard work in promoting the U.S. soda ash industry and ensuring that action was taken to lower the rate. We truly appreciate their tireless efforts to get this action completed.
This rate reduction will lead to exponential growth in the domestic soda ash industry in the years ahead. By reducing the rate to 2 percent for 10 years, DOI has provided the surety that the companies need to make the significant investments of $6-7 billion back into the industry that will allow for an increase of over 50 percent in capacity; hundreds of new full-time jobs; and thousands of part-time construction jobs necessary to build future new plants and expansions.
IMA-NA is a non-profit trade organization representing industrial minerals producers throughout North America. IMA-NA represents a diverse set of member companies engaged in mining and processing of ball clay, barite, bentonite, borates, calcium carbonate, diatomite, feldspar, gilsonite, industrial sand, kaolin, salt, soda ash, talc, and wollastonite.
