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House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva and New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich both introduced legislation yesterday that would update the nation’s primary mining law, the General Mining Act of 1872, in ways that would fundamentally alter how mining companies produce minerals on federal lands.
Both bills share a title, the “Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act,” and both lawmakers cited soaring demand for metals that are needed to make electric vehicles and renewable energy projects. Senator Heinrich told E&E News, “the reality of needing additional minerals for the changing economy is a real one, but the price of that should also be updating our rules and regulations to something that is not a 150-year-old framework.”
While there are substantive differences between the two bills, both seek to address issues around how long companies can conduct mining activities and what they have to pay in order to do so. Currently, companies can obtain rights to mine the federal mineral estate indefinitely, and mines operating on federal lands pay no royalties for extracting a publicly owned resource.
Efforts to reform this wildly outdated law have fallen short in the past, including most recently during failed negotiations last year for the climate and social spending Build Back Better bill. For additional legal and historical context about why it has been so challenging to update this mining law, check out our interview with former Interior Department Solicitor and law professor John Leshy on the latest episode of CWP's "The Landscape" podcast.
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Human-caused mortality is the story of wolves across North America. One place that was not the case was Yellowstone, and we’re not anymore.”
