For 20 years, mining for uranium inside of the Grand Canyon has been banned. For that same amount of time, the Koch brothers have worked tirelessly to get the ban lifted.
Billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch are channeling money into an Arizona-based organization that’s fighting a plan that would include a permanent ban on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.
The arguments for upholding the ban are that it provides no public profit to allow private uranium mining and that by not allowing such, we relieve ourselves of the burden of worrying about the very real environmental damage uranium mining would open up.
This is exactly why the new USDA report by the Trump administration is both unsurprising and grotesquely craven. In it they have all kinds of great recommendations for how we can “streamline” things in our national parks. Lo and behold, one of them “could” lead to uranium mining.
Adoption of this recommendation could re-open lands to mineral entry pursuant to the United States mining laws facilitating exploration for, and possibly development of, uranium resources.
Trump and his interior scam artist Ryan Zinke have been very clear about their intentions to parcel off our national park lands to private interests. Along with our energy secretary, the honorable dunderhead from Texas Rick Perry, there has been a multi-pronged effort to turn back time on how we develop as a nation. And there’s no attempt to hide how craven this stance is: It’s about making rich people more money at the expense of the overwhelming majority of Americans.
“The holidays have come early and often for the oil, gas and mining industry since Donald Trump took office,” said Vera Smith, the forest planning policy director at The Wilderness Society. “People flock to public lands like national forests to watch wildlife, raft clean rivers, hunt and fish, or camp beneath the stars. Today’s report ignores the $887 billion that outdoor activities contribute to this nation’s economy so the Trump Administration can check off the wish list of its fossil fuel allies.”
As Think Progress points out, this is like coal: a pretend solution to keep the wealthiest elites in our society bathing in rubies and diamonds for a little while longer.
The economic implications of lifting the ban don’t work in the favor of the Trump administration either. Existing uranium mines in the area are currently idled, not because of regulations, but because of rock-bottom global uranium prices.
Even if the market rebounds, a mining expansion would have nearly no economic benefit for taxpayers. Under the General Mining Act of 1872, the federal government can’t collect royalties on minerals like uranium, so there would be no significant revenue raised from the move. Industry would be the sole beneficiaries, while publicly owned forests surrounding a national park are damaged and polluted.
Why should Americans benefit from our national parks when really rich guys still feel the need to make more money? The sad fact is, there’s no amount of money or power that will make these wretched old creatures whole again.