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December 9, 2005
CONGRESS PROPOSES
LEGISLATION TO SELL FORESTLAND AT BARGAIN PRICES
New Bill
Could Trigger Land-Rush Sale of Los Padres to Mining Companies
and Other Development Interests
Washington, DC -- Last
month, a California congressman quietly inserted a provision
into a hundred-page budget bill that could precipitate one of
the largest land giveaways in American history. The new law,
passed by the House and awaiting Senate approval, could
privatize vast tracts of public land by allowing mining
conglomerates and other developers to buy public land at
bargain-basement prices. Thousands of acres of the Los Padres
National Forest are at stake.
Background - the General
Mining Law of 1872
Mining on national forests
and other public lands is governed by the General Mining Law of
1872, an antiquated statute that allows mining companies to take
valuable hardrock minerals like gold, silver, copper, and
uranium from public lands. Enacted under President Ulysses S.
Grant over 130 years ago, the law remains virtually unchanged
today, and provides little protection from the damage caused by
modern mining operations.
This antiquated law allows miners to claim rights
to minerals beneath public lands. It also allows miners to
purchase and own outright ("patent") the surface lands
above these minerals. Miners can patent public lands for less
than $5 per acre if they prove they could viably
mine minerals underneath the lands.
Since 1994, Congress has
imposed a moratorium on the sale
of land with mining claims in an
effort to end years of
multibillion-dollar taxpayer
rip-offs. Under the moratorium, hard-rock
mining companies can still mine on public lands, but cannot own
the land. Congress has renewed the patent moratorium every
year since.
The Threat - Pombo's
Budget Reconciliation Bill
In November, Representative
Richard Pombo of California quietly inserted a provision in a
budget bill that would lift the moratorium on patents, allowing
mining companies to once again stake ownership of millions of
acres of public lands. Pombo claims that the money made from
this scheme would help pay down the huge national deficit.
ForestWatch believes that selling off our national treasures to
private interests is a dangerous way to balance the budget.
The new provision also accelerates
and expands the land
area that could be claimed.
Under the existing Mining Law, a company must prove that there
are valuable mineral deposits under the land they claim. Pombo's
bill would
eliminate this requirement,
allowing any individual or corporation to stake a mining claim
and purchase it without having to prove that it contains
minerals.
Pombo's legislation does
increase the price of claimed land to $1,000 an acre or fair
market value, whichever is greater, but under the bill "fair
market value" does not include the value of minerals hidden
below the land's surface. Billions of dollars in minerals would
simply be given away!
The sell-off would not require that the land actually be used
for mining, so untold acres of our commons would be open to
development of all types. The bill encourages the sell-off of
previously mined land (as well as contiguous land that hasn’t
been mined) for “sustainable economic development”—hotels, ski
resorts, golf courses, and second homes.
Specifically,
the legislation would:
- Put 5.7 million acres of public lands up
for sale immediately where companies have
already staked mining claims, including more
than 3 million acres of claims inside or
within five miles of national parks,
wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, national
forests and prized public assets.
- Open up as many as 350 million acres of
public lands for sale to the highest bidder.
The measure would affect Wilderness Study Areas, roadless areas,
and lands next to national parks and monuments. Some of these
lands have been previously withdrawn from mining activity to
protect them, but the new bill would override that protection
wherever withdrawn lands were adjacent to mining claims.
The bottom line: Real
estate speculators, oil and gas companies, foreign mining
corporations, or anyone else who's willing to pay $1,000 per
acre could buy large tracts of public land and develop it in any
way they wanted.
What it Means for the
Los Padres
Under the proposed
legislation, 635,225 acres of existing mining claims in
California could be sold to developers at bargain basement
prices, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working
Group.
The Los Padres National
Forest contains 141 current mining claims (as of 2004),
including:
- 39 current mining
claims in pristine, roadless areas with wilderness
qualities;
- 11 current claims in
the Sespe Wilderness Area, and 5 patents;
- 3 mining patents on
the Sespe Wild & Scenic River;
- 1 abandoned mining
patent in the San Rafael Wilderness; and
- 1 current claim in the
Silver Peaks Wilderness Area.
In addition to these
wilderness areas, a whopping 58 plots of land inside the forest
have already been patented by, and sold to, miners for less than
$5 per acre. Another 2,458 plots of land have at one time been
claimed by miners, but these claims are now closed.
The new law would allow all
of these defunct and current mining claims to be purchased
outright, even some lands lying inside Congressionally-protected
wilderness areas, selling off thousands of acres of our public
lands to private development interests.
What's Next
The Deficit Reduction Act
of 2005 (HR 4241, also called the "budget reconciliation bill")
has passed the House, but the Senate version does not contain
the mining language. The differences between the House and
Senate versions now have to be reconciled in a conference
committee. The conference committee will make changes to the
bill and then present it to the full Congress for approval. A
vote by Congress is expected by the end of the year.
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