(Note: this is my first attempt at using a twitter threadrollup app. Please forgive formatting & linking errors – AS)
The #mining industry’s (and their advocates’) arguments against #miningreform proposed by @NRDems & @SenatorTomUdall are built on untruths.
@NationalMining, and @CatoInstitute in @thehill, claim that onerous U.S. oversight obstructs #mining investment, never mind real #miningreform. https://thehill.com/opinion/international/444122-mine-us-minerals-dont-undermine-them
They are wrong. Don’t take @earthworks word for it if you don’t want to. But you should believe mining industry executives: they report, year after year, the U.S. has the most attractive #mining investment jurisdictions in the world.
The @FraserInstitute, a right-leaning Canadian think tank, surveys #mining company executives around the world every year, and has since 1997 regarding the most attractive jurisdictions in the world for #mining on a number of criteria. fraserinstitute.org/categories/min…
Note the important distinction: they don’t survey #mining trade associations, or lobbyists. They survey exploration, development companies “to assess how mineral endowments & public policy factors such as taxation and regulatory uncertainty affect exploration investment”.
And what do they find? This year they find Nevada is the #1 most attractive jurisdiction for #mining investment. Alaska is #5. fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/… #miningreform
And last year, they surveyed #mining executives re permitting times. By now you’ll be unsurprised to know that #mining company employees — not PR flacks, not lobbyists — think US permitting times are not unusual https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/permit-times-for-mining-exploration-in-2017
To those familiar with the issue, this isn’t a e. The @USGAO recently reported on #mining permitting times and found avg permitting times 2yrs (industry claims 10yrs) and where delays occurred it was usually the company’s fault. https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-165
The upshot: despite @NationalMining Assoc., Trum ass=”entity-mention” href=”https://twitter.com/Interior”>@Interior Dept and others’ claims, #mining oversight of “critical” minerals doesn’t need weakening. It needs #miningreform — like what @nrdems & @SenatorTomUdall have proposed.earthworks.org/media-releases…
We need #miningreform because we have 500,000 abandoned mines that will cost taxpayers $50 billion to clean up.
We need #miningreform b/c 40% of the headwaters of western US watersheds have been polluted by #mining. nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/…
We need #miningreform b/c #mining is the nation’s largest toxic polluter. iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/re…
We need #miningreform b/c the 1872 #mining law has given away $300 BILLION in minerals to mining companies — foreign and domestic — without paying the owners (taxpayers) a dime for them. earthworks.org/publications/g…
And we need #miningreform b/c under current law, land managers like @forestservice & @BLMNational make #mining the “highest & best use” of #publiclands — even if the public’s land is better used for water protection, or even #fracking. earthworks.org/1872