As
Republicans Gin Up a Fake Case, They Open the Grand Canyon to Mining Companies
By
Sarah Okeson
As Republicans have
launched a trumped-up investigation into Hillary
Clinton’s tenuous connection to the 2010 sale of a uranium company, those same
Republicans are preparing to hand over protected public land to uranium mining
companies.
A new U.S. Forest
Service report suggests undoing an order under
former President Barack Obama that banned new uranium mines near the Grand
Canyon for two decades.
“The Forest Service
should be advocating for a permanent mining ban, not
for advancing private mining interests that threaten one of the natural wonders
of the world,” said Amber Reimondo, energy program director for Grand
Canyon Trust.
The 2012 order from then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar withdrew 1 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Land from new mining for 20 years. Existing mines and claims were allowed to continue.
The National Mining Association has
challenged the ban in court but has lost so far. The case has been appealed to
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
In October, the
association was addressed at a board meeting at the Trump International
Hotel in Washington by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Commerce Secretary Wilbur
Ross and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta.
Other plaintiffs
include the Nuclear
Energy Institute which has spent $1.4 million on federal lobbying so far
this year.
At the center of the
controversy is Energy Fuels Resources, a Lakewood, Colo.-based mining
company that owns the Canyon Mine near the south rim of the
Grand Canyon and the White Mesa Mill. It is the only fully licensed and
operating conventional uranium mill in the United States, about 300 miles away
in Utah.
The company’s parent corporation is incorporated in Ontario, Canada. The company has extensive mining interests throughout the West.
The company’s parent corporation is incorporated in Ontario, Canada. The company has extensive mining interests throughout the West.
Uranium was discovered
near the south rim in 1951. The Orphan Mine produced 13 million pounds of
uranium used to power nuclear reactors and make nuclear weapons.
Outside the park, the
turquoise Havasupai Falls at the bottom of a canyon on Native American land
attracts hikers. The tribal name means “people of the blue-green water.”
“This is a dangerous industry that is motivated by
profit and greed with a long history of significantly damaging lands and
waters,” said Tribal Chairman Don Watahomigie.
“They are now seeking new mines when this industry has yet to clean up the hundreds of existing mines all over the landscape that continue to damage our home.”
“They are now seeking new mines when this industry has yet to clean up the hundreds of existing mines all over the landscape that continue to damage our home.”
The interest in new
uranium mines in our country comes as China and Russia are building new nuclear
reactors. At home, nuclear energy has become increasingly costly. Westinghouse, which built
nuclear reactors, went bankrupt.
The global price of
uranium has fallen since reaching high in 2011. The
U.S. produced 1,126 tons of uranium last year out of
global production of more than 62,000 tons or less than 2% of the total.
ACTION BOX/What You Can Do About It
Call Tony Tooke, the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, at 202-205-8439 or write him at USDA Forest Service, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-1111
The Grand
Canyon Trust, a nonprofit to protect the Grand Canyon and the
Colorado Plateau, can be reached at info@grandcanyontrust.org or
by calling 928-774-7488.