Mining Regulatory Clarity Act of 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Mexico for yielding, and I thank her for also actually reading the bill. Sometimes the truth matters in these debates.
We have to take many things with a grain of salt. We have been lectured about national security from folks who just last week voted to deny aid to Ukraine. The pro-Putin caucus is actually lecturing us about national security. You have to take it all with a grain of salt or maybe with a glass of vodka in this particular case.
In regard to this bill, the mining industry says they need this bill to provide regulatory clarity. Well, if it is clarity our colleagues across the aisle are seeking, this bill certainly delivers it because in the name of regulatory clarity, they would let any mining company do, essentially, whatever they want in any open area of public lands.
We have our long-outdated Mining Law of 1872 that already gives more rights to miners than any other public land users by far.
Under current law, as long as they have four stakes in the ground and keep up with their nominal annual fees, any open public lands are theirs for the taking.
Of course, for our colleagues across the aisle, that is not enough. For the mining industry, it is never enough.
Under this bill, the land that they are after wouldn't even need to have valuable minerals for miners to hold a valid mining claim. Under this bill, they actually don't even need to have a mining claim at all. This bill would allow any activity even slightly related to prospecting, exploration, discovery and assessment, development, extraction, or processing of minerals, regardless of whether that activity is carried out on a mining claim. It also waives any payment of fair market value for the use of public lands and resources for mining-related activities.
My colleagues say they are interested in clarity. Let's be very clear what all of this means. If a mining corporation decided to build a large-scale power plant directly outside a national park to support their claim, they could do it under this bill. That same mining corporation could build a polluting processing plant right next to the power plant and suck the aquifers dry to support their mine, under this bill.
They could build a network of pipelines and roads or anything else the mining company decides is ``necessary infrastructure'' across grazing areas or priority areas for renewable energy development or anything else they want.
They could also permanently bury sacred sites near their mining claim. They could bury it in toxic waste under this bill. None of these tangential activities would have to go through the usual evaluation of public lands use because they would be given the same priority rights the mining industry already enjoys on public lands.
If all of that wasn't enough, under this bill, the mining industry, or, frankly, any bad actor with a handful of dollars, could effectively block any other use of our public lands, like recreation, like natural carbon storage, access to traditional and cultural resources, renewable energy projects, or any number of other important uses.
This bill says that anyone--and I do mean anyone--could do any so- called mining-related activities on or off a mining claim for a mere $10 per acre per year.
This entire bill is one of the most egregious giveaways of our public lands and resources most of us have ever seen, and that is saying something because we have seen a lot of proposed giveaways from our friends across the aisle. Our public lands would become the mining industry's playground or dumping grounds as they see fit.
There are other important uses for our public lands. Our public lands and waters should also be considered for solar, for wind, and for geothermal resources. This bill threatens to hand absolute control to mining companies and would jeopardize the crucial role public lands can play in responsible, renewable energy production, among other important uses.
Our public lands serve as substantial carbon sinks, aiding both communities and ecosystems in adapting to the challenges brought on by the climate crisis that our friends ignore and deny.
These lands should not belong to the mining industry and other exploitive actors. They should belong to all Americans.
Our public lands deserve our protection. We need real reform of this antiquated mining law from 1872 to put other uses of our public lands on equal footing with the mining industry. We need to prioritize Tribal sovereignty, community input, and environmental protection to give Americans a fair return for their public minerals.
The good news is, that bill already exists, and I am a proud cosponsor of ranking member Grijalva's Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act. It would do all of those important things. That is the bill we should be considering today. Instead, we have the bill before us that would double down on the mining law of 1872's worst ideas.
This is the wrong move for a modern, sustainable mining industry, it is the wrong move for America, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
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