a stealth approach to selling public lands
The House
Reconciliation bill contains a short-sighted
and ill-considered provision to sell off our nation's
public lands without regard for the public good.
While there are some revenues associated with this
fire sale, the revenues fall far short of what could
be achieved by a true reform of the 1872 Mining Law.
The bill would:
- Lift a ban on the sale or "patenting" of public lands to
mining claim holders that has been in place since 1994. This
action immediately allows the sale
of more than 5.5 million acres of public land,including pristine
land within wilderness study areas, popular recreation spots,
lands adjacent to and within
treasured national parks, important wildlife habitat and
critical watershed areas.
- Makes new provisions for selling land under the mining law
-- allowing mining claim holders to buy land which contains or
once contained valuable
minerals as well as unlimited blocks of adjacent land. Large
expanses of nearly 300 million acres of Western public land
could be privatized under this provision.
- Excludes any requirement that land purchased actually be
used for mining, essentially legalizing what was previously
considered an abuse of the mining
law and allowing mining companies, real estate developers and
others to turn treasured natural areas into condos, resorts or
other inappropriate developments.
- Removes a requirement to show a "discovery of a valuable mineral deposit" before making a purchase or securing rights to the land - a requirement that has been in the law since 1872. Also weakens the existing laws requirements for mining claim holders to actually carry out claim-related work.
- Allows mining operations conducted on these "sold" public lands to escape federal environmental review and reclamation bonding requirements.
- Creates additional opportunities for taxpayer rip-offs by
requiring the Department of Interior to accept, without review,
appraisals offered by
prospective land purchasers.
- Raises less than half the amount of revenue thatb could be
raised by a modest 8% royalty on hardrockbmining companies - a
royalty level in line with the percentage fees paid by other
extractive industries
removing valuable resources from public land.
- Threatens revenues raised from oil and gas royalties, since
the bill's provisions could also be used by extractive
industries to purchase land
outright rather than seek lease agreements.