Digging out of a 137-year-old hole
To say that reform of an antiquated 137-year-old bill is drastically overdue would be a grave misrepresentation. Yet here we are, in 2009, and a hardrock mining law that promoted expansion of the West - a bill that was passed in 1872 - is still on the books.
It's been a while since we last wrote about it, so here is a quick recap. The General Mining Act of 1872 was written and adopted to encourage development in the West, then a land of great, untapped riches. The law, which hasn't been substantially updated since its adoption in 1872, allows mining companies to extract minerals such as gold, silver and copper from the ground without paying royalties - unlike coal, oil and gas companies who pay royalties for using public lands. And since the idea of protecting the environment and ecological conservation wasn't prevalent in 19th-century America, the law doesn't contain environmental protection provisions. But it's the inability, or more accureately the lack of capitalizing on the subsidies that is drawing the most attention. For it is costing Americans a boatload of money, a consequence that isn't sitting pretty during these difficult financial times.
According to a report (PDF) by the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining, " Failure by Congress to reform the nation’s mining law and to rein in long-standing special interest subsidies could cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $1.6 billion over the coming decade."
“In these difficult economic times, it goes without saying: We can no longer afford to ignore a billion-dollar stream of untapped revenues,” said Velma Smith, manager of the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining, a project of the Pew Environment Group, and author of the report. “It’s time for Congress to stop the mining industry’s free ride and start treating it like any other business that uses public resources.”
Yesterday, U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) introduced legislation to reform the Mining Law of 1872. "Given our current economic crisis and the empty state of our national Treasury, it is ludicrous to be allowing this outmoded law to continue to exempt these lucrative mining activities from paying a fair return to the American people," Rahall said in a press release. "Nobody in their right mind would allow timber, oil, gas, coal or copper to be cut, drilled for, or mined on lands they own without receiving a payment in return for the disposition of their resources. And neither should the United States."
Our own Senator here in the State of Washington, Maria Cantwell, has been a champion for mining law reform in the past, and as this legislation makes its way through the House and into the Senate we should expect to hear more from her.
