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U.S. House passes groundbreaking mining bill

Posted at 3:28 PM on 01 Nov 2007

The U.S. House of Representatives has, in a fit of sanity, voted to make mining companies pay royalties on minerals they dig up on public land. By a vote of 244-166, the House approved the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, which would reform a 135-year-old law that President Ulysses S. Grant signed to encourage development in the West. Unchanged since 1872, it allows mining companies to buy land for as little as $2.50 an acre. The new legislation would also put new environmental controls on mining and set up a cleanup fund. Mine-state lawmakers got a tad dramatic. "This legislation hurts, perhaps even kills, the domestic mining industry and with it the towns and communities in western Nevada and rural America," said Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) (After all, oil and gas companies have to pay similar royalties, and they're barely scraping by.) The legislation is groundbreaking (ha!), but don't get too excited: The bill faces a tougher battle in the Senate, and the White House has threatened to veto.

sources: Reuters, Associated Press
see also, in Grist: Mining-law reform bill could change rules for mines on public land

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Rural mythology

"This legislation hurts, perhaps even kills, the domestic mining industry and with it the towns and communities in western Nevada and rural America," said Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.)

Isn't it nice that mining companies are good for rural america?

Mining companies hide behind the image of the hardscrabble miner, timber companies (now timberland investors) hide behind the image of the hardworking logger, ag industries hide behind the image of the honest farmer. All of these industries, in their current form, are nothing but bad for the rural communities of America. They have worked as hard as possible to replace humans with machines and to pay the remaining humans as little as possible.

Devastated communities strewn across the U.S. are evidence of our policies toward rural America. Now, after draining them of their vitality, they are a nice front for corporations, and a good place to visit if you have a lot of money and an itch to buy a vacation home with a view. Rural American today is service industry-based, with the very rich and the very poor living side by side, and with almost all land-based, blue-collar jobs gone.

This is a simplification, but scratch the surface of any piece of legislation or corporation that purports to "help" rural America (I'm looking at you, farm bill), and you'll see benefits for large industry and, maybe, some preservation measures. We Americans like to romanticize our rural countryside and its connection both to the land and to our own history, but it's not much more than disneyland at this point.

by blueberrysushi at 11:20 AM on 02 Nov 2007

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