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Democrats in the House are asking the Government Accountability Office to investigate foreign-owned companies that mine on U.S. public lands. They're asking the GAO to look into the extent to which these companies are extracting minerals from public lands, and whether those entities are complying with U.S. environmental and human rights standards.
The GAO has previously reported that there are over 700 operations authorized to mine hardrock minerals on federal lands, but little is known about the amount of material produced.
“There is evidence that U.S. companies seeking mineral leases on federal lands may be subsidiaries of foreign companies, including adversarial countries, accused of serious human rights and environmental violations,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.
House Natural Resources Ranking Member Raúl Grijalva is leading the request, with support from Representatives Jared Huffman of California, Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, and Joe Neguse of Colorado.
The request comes as a growing number of lawmakers push to ease mining regulations on federal lands. A bill sponsored by Representative Mark Amodei of Nevada that would allow mining companies to store waste on land that doesn't have economically recoverable minerals passed the House yesterday.
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The demographic that cares the most about climate change are Latinos... They’re more convinced it's happening, that it’s human caused. They’re more worried about it, they’re more supportive of action and they’re more willing to get personally involved.”
