Feinstein Bill Could Bolster Activist Push On Mining Cleanup Fund
Published March 23, 2008
A bill Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced recently emboldens efforts is urging the Senate to follow the House's lead and adopt a royalty fee system and cleanup fund for hardrock ming on public lands, activist sources say.
The development comes as environmentalists are also touting a study they say justifies new environmental standards the House approved last year in H.R. 2262, and as key Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation that would increase the amount of funding available for hardrock mine cleanup in Western states.
Like the House legislation, Feinstein's bill, S. 2750, would establish an abandoned mine cleanup fund largely by establishing a 4 percent royalty on existing hardrock mining operations on public lands and an 8 percent royalty on new operations. In addition, Feinstein's bill would also feed the cleanup fund by establishing a 0.3 percent reclamation fee on all hardrock mining sites, public or private. Relevant documents are available on InsideEPA.com
Activists had encouraged Feinstein to introduce the bill in order to establish a marker on the royalty issue in the Senate, which environmentalists fear will produce less stringent mining-reform legislation that is more favorable to industry, an activist source says.
Industry officials have said they do not oppose the establishment of royalty fees entirely, but have voiced strong opposition to the royalty scheme the House bill creates. Industry officials argue the royalty fees established in the House bill are too high, and say the fees should only apply to new mines.
The activist source does not "think there is any realistic hope [Feinstein's] bill is going to pass on its own," but says environmentalists are hopeful it could bolster their efforts to strengthen whatever mining reform legislation leaders of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee introduce.
According to a press release issued by Feinstein's office, the bill "is intended to be one part of the comprehensive mining reform debate expected to occur in the Senate later this year." While the bill does not include any of the new environmental standards in the House bill -- to which industry and Senate Republicans are also opposed -- "Feinstein is also supportive of efforts to reform mining law more broadly," the press release says.
"Abandoned mines in California and across the country pose a serious threat to public safety and health," Feinstein says in the release, adding that "[t]he problem is that we lack a reliable and steady stream of funding . . ."
Feinstein, along with Sens. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), has also sought in recent years to address the mine cleanup funding issue through legislation that would end a percentage depletion allowance that provides hardrock mining companies a tax break and instead redirects the money into a cleanup fund.
Like previous versions of the legislation, the tax bill the lawmakers introduced in the current Congress, S. 2287, has seen little attention in the Senate, and the activist source says the bill could become moot if Congress approves comprehensive mining-reform legislation that includes what environmentalists consider to be an adequate royalty scheme.
In addition, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, along with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), the ranking Republican on the committee, and other members of the panel, introduced March 13 S. 2779, a bill clarifying that states and tribal governments can use money from a Surface Mining Control & Reclamation Act (SMCRA) fund for the hardrock mine cleanups.
The SMCRA bill is meant to reverse a controversial Department of Interior (DOI) decision to limit the use of the fund to only surface mining cleanups. The decision has prompted serious concerns from Western states, who have argued that they contribute to the fund but face mostly problems dealing with hardrock ming cleanups rather than surface mines.
A Senate source says supporters of the SMCRA bill may seek to attach it to other related legislation, citing the Senate's anticipated hardrock mining-reform legislation as one potential vehicle.
In regards to the environmental provisions in the House bill that environmentalists are looking to preserve in the Senate, activists are pointing to a new study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that environmentalists say shows that rising metals prices have lead to a dramatic surge in hardrock mining claims near residential areas.
"Since 2003, mining interests have staked 16,282 claims within five miles of cities and towns in twelve western states, for a total of 51,579 active mining claims within five miles of these communities as of January 2008," the EWG study says, adding that "[a]ctive mining claims on public lands in the West doubled in the past five years, from 207,540 in 2003 to 414,228 in January 2008 . . ."
A second activist source says the study helps justify a provision in the House bill that allows local governments to petition federal regulators to remove certain lands from mining consideration. It also justifies a provision enabling federal regulators to weigh mining claims against other potential uses of public lands, the source says.
