Tomorrow, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a hearing on legislation to reform the 1872 Mining Law. You remember, that antiquated 137-year-old bill that was written and adopted to encourage development in the West by allowing mining companies to extract minerals such as gold, silver and copper from the ground without paying royalties - yeah that one, the one that's still on the books.

H.R 699 - Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009 is identical to a measure the House passed in the last Congress.  The effort stalled in the Senate last year.  It would provide modern environmental and taxpayer protections to the 137-year statute that is fundamentally unchanged since it was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Witnesses at tomorrow's hearing include Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV); former U.S. Interior Solicitor General John Leshy; Gunnison County (CO) Commissioner Jim Starr; and former Death Valley National Park Superintendent J.T. Reynolds.

Our own Senator here in the State of Washington, Maria Cantwell, has been a champion for mining law reform in the past, and we should be expecting to hear more from her as this issue progresses.

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