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Friday, May 21, 2004
Elect a Congress to protect public land
As Washingtonians consider their election choices, they ought to do so with a sense of their place in a West whose natural heritage has received too little attention. We need a Congress that is more attuned to protecting the land than propping up companies that exploit it.
As a recent report from the Environmental Working Group illustrated, the spectacularly outdated General Mining Law of 1872 has put a large share of the minerals on Western public land under the control of foreign corporations. Domestic and foreign claim holders are allowed to mine without paying any royalties on their profits to the public.
A landmark Seattle Post-Intelligencer series in 2001 showed how the special treatment for mining stands in contrast to the public payments received from oil and gas companies. And the law has allowed serious environmental abuses.
All sides agree that an update of the law is overdue. But environmental and mining groups disagree on what changes should be made, how large royalties might be or how exactly to better protect the land.
It's hard to imagine a good measure emerging from the current Republican-controlled Congress or winning the administration's support. Having lived with the mining law for some 130 years, the West can wait a little longer for changes. But we should be looking for members of Congress who will eliminate 19th-century abuses in favor of 21st-century protections for public land.
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