Mining has much at stake in November

Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association, recently told miners in Nevada that the November general election will have major significance for U.S. miners with the election of a new U.S. president and a new Congress.

In a presentation to the Nevada Mining Association convention at Lake Tahoe, Skaer said the bad news for mining is that key western senators, supportive of the domestic mining industry are retiring including powerful New Mexico senator Pete Domenici, Colorado Republican U.S. Senator Wayne Allard, and Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

However, pro-mining Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski will probably replace Domenici as the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Skaer noted.

Meanwhile, she advised that a new presidential administration - no matter who wins - will probably appoint a new Secretary of the Interior to replace Dirk Kempthorne, who, thus far, has refused to comply with an emergency resolution by the House Natural Resources Committee to withdraw as much as 1,068,908 acres of federal land near the Grand Canyon National Park from any new uranium mining for up to the next three years.

While many U.S. news headlines have concentrated on reform of the 1872 Mining Law, Skaer highlighted a number of bills which also could have serious ramifications for the domestic hardrock mining sector. With the upcoming general election, Skaer advised that mining law reform is dead for this year. She also did not anticipate that any measures to generate federal funds to clean up abandoned mined lands will be attached to any congressional appropriation bills.

However, Skaer is particularly concerned about several bills that were introduced during the current Congress, particularly bills aimed at amending the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to expand federal control of U.S. waters, according to a Sept. 15 report in Mineweb.

The Clean Water Restoration Act-S 1870 and H.R. 2421-would expand the jurisdiction of federal agencies from navigable waters to nearly every body of water in the country. "It's a very bad bill," Skaer declared, asserting it would give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers "control over virtually every stream, ditch, pond and puddle in the U.S."

Skaer also expressed concern about the National Landscape Conservation System Act-S 1139 and H.R. 2016. The legislation would establish within the Bureau of Land Management the National Landscape Conservation System, which aims to "conserve, protect, and restore nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations."

The act would threaten access to lands open for mineral entry and other public land uses, Skaer said, adding that it would increase permitting burdens for mining exploration.

However, attorney Skaer also highlighted some good news for the mining industry coming out of the appellate court system. In the logging case, Lands Council v. McNair, Skaer said the notoriously liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a federal appellate court should not necessarily substitute its own judgment for that of a federal agency.

She suggested that the ruling will make it more difficult for mining project opponents to get an appellate court to set aside federal agency Records of Decision.