There was an article in The Idaho Statesman yesterday regarding a mining reform bill coming before the House Rules Committee and eventually to the floor sometime this week. In fact, the Rules Committee is hearing positions this afternoon with guidelines for the amendment process posted and here there is the texts of the bill, the committee report, and summary/text of amendments to be submitted.
In that Stateman’s article, the bill’s current designation is never given. It’s H.R. 2262.
The writer of the Statesman article does phrase this as “a national debate over the future of mining on public lands has become a local issue in Boise because of a proposed gold mine upstream.” H.R. 2262 is meant to ‘reform’ (update) the 1872 Mining Act and “was approved in committee over the objections of Idaho Republican Rep. Bill Sali, a former miner. “
I don’t know enough yet and am doing some reading. The New West had an article on Dave Bieter’s opposition from earlier this year. Earthworks had a couple of references along with information on the most recent update (This is a pdf file).
Other resources to track the bill or find out more or what it’s about:
Sys-Con Media H.R. 2262 The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 What People Think: 17% ab For, 83% Against
Edit (16:31 MST): [One thing I failed to mention was the story below about the church in Germany being moved, one of the companies who owns that mine is Boise's Washington Group International. It owns a 50% share.]
Filed under: HR 2262, Idaho - My Neck of the Woods, Mining
It appears Congressman Rahall (WV-D) and co-sponsors
of HR 2262 are in the pockets of huge coal mining
corporations, petroleum cartels and radical
envoronmental organizations. He is currently
guiding his H.R. 2262, The Hard rock Mining and
Reclamation Act of 2007 through congress.
It has passed in the house 244 in favor to 166
against. It should be noted that 24 republicans voted
in favor of the bill.
This act if passed will place our nation’s mineral
resources that are located on federal lands, under the
partial jurisdiction of local governments as well as
allow local governments and politicians to petition
for the withdrawal of mineral rights from those lands.
This bill will allow any person or group to bring a
lawsuit against exploration or mining activities on
federal lands upon any allegation of
non-compliance with federal or state statutes. This
will lead to environmental groups filing endless legal
actions causing closures, elevated costs and years of
legal wrangling before production is reached.
In addition this bill applies four to eight percent
gross royalty to the sales of minerals mined from federal
lands. This royalty would essentially
steal the profit a company would expect to make
A two to four percent net royalty
is common recompense to the discoverer.
The royalty would also effect mine workers wages as
profit margings would shrink.
These requirements and other obstructionist provisions
deliberatly incorporated within HR 2262 will
financially harm all domestic metal
mining companies operating or proposing to operate on
federal lands.
In most instances it will no longer be feasible to
attempt to explore for minerals or open a new mine on
federal lands, so most mining companies will move to
new projects located off shore. We have witnessed
other industries reacting the same due to over
regulation in the past.
“Mom and Pop” operations will all close due to the
tremendous costs associated with the requirements
of this bill. That will leave only the largest
international mining corporations, already operating, able to mine on
federal lands.
This act would be devastating to many minority
groups, especially Hispanic and Native Americans. In
the west many mines and rock quarries have a minority
employee base of forty to eighty percent. Without
continued mining activity the mining towns will die
and the people will suffer.
It should be noted that uranium is a locatable
mineral. Over eighty percent of all uranium mined in
the U.S. has or continues to come
from mines located on federal lands. Large exploration
programs are on going across the west in an attempt to
identify new reserves of uranium bearing ore deposits.
Most of these efforts would be abandoned due to new
environmental provisions contained in this bill.
Currently three new nuclear power plants are due to
receive construction permits next year and the federal
government is allocating over 50 million dollars to
promote new nuclear power plans. We are currently in a
debate as a nation as to the potential of generating
up to 60% of our electricity by nuclear power by 2040.
Now it appears that if Congressman Rahall and the
co-sponsors of HR 2262 can attain it’s passage and the
the implementation of these draconian laws, they will
be able with a single
act, keep the huge petroleum, coal and oil shale
interests in control of our nation’s energy future and
satisfy the radical anti-nuclear power environmental
groups.
This appears is a huge power play, hidden behind
environmental and revenue concerns, for the heart and
soul of our nations power production health.
This massive protectionist effort by Rahall and the HR
2262 co-sponsors, on the part of these special
interest groups to retain the status quo must be
stopped.
H.R. 2262 is a horrible bill that if passed would be
destructive to our nation.
If this bill passes we will be completely dependent on
other countries for uranium and other metals. We will
be locked into using oil and coal for electric
generation. We should not support placing
ourselves in the position we have with our petroleum
products, where we must rely on foreign countries for
our uranium and other industrial and precious metals.
We need our U.S. Senators to up and oppose this billl