MiningWeek Online
April 9, 2004 Volume 10, Issue 14

This Week's Issue:

• Gerard: Senate misses ‘important opportunity’ to improve fuel diversity, air quality
• AASG presents awards to Reid, Domenici
• NMA generally supports OSM rules, but urges agency to make adjustments
• Bush praises AmerCable for training, contributions to local economy
• Additional BLM funds sought to speed permitting in Nevada
• Supreme Court denies certiorari for jurisdictional waters cases
• Idardo land permanently protected under transaction agreement
• Hearing Room dedicated in honor of Commissioner Richard V. Backley
• Kerry calls for higher mining fees during economic policy speech
• Newsbits

In failing this week by a vote of 50-47 to invoke cloture on the energy tax motion related to S. 1637, the Senate “missed an important opportunity to improve both the nation’s fuel diversity and its air quality,” NMA President and CEO Jack N. Gerard said.

The vote concerned the Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Tax Bill (FSC/ETI) and a Senate Republican Leadership motion to attach to it the Energy Tax Incentive Act, as reported by the Senate Finance Committee last year.

“The three tax credits proposed would have enabled coal-based utilities to retrofit their plants with the equipment needed to meet the next round of air emission reductions,” Gerard noted. “They would also have helped construction of new power plants using advanced clean coal technologies to increase efficiencies while meeting tough environmental standards.”

Gerard said the expanding U.S. economy “needs ample supplies of electricity from coal-based power plants. It’s unfortunate the Senate didn’t advance this far-sighted and socially responsible package. We urge the Senate to continue efforts to pass comprehensive energy legislation.”

NMA actively urged support of the measure in events leading up to the vote, including a letter to all Senators which noted the tax provisions are a “key component of the strategy to promote fuel diversity by providing incentives for greater commercial use of clean coal technologies.” NMA will remain aggressively engaged as congressional energy bill deliberations proceed.

Immediately following the vote, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said he intends to continue to work in a bi-partisan manner to overcome the current impasse. Another attempt to add the energy tax provisions to the FSC/ETI bill and pass the combined package will occur after the Senate returns from next week’s recess.

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AASG presents awards to Reid, Domenici

The American Association of State Geologists (AASG) recently presented the “Pick and Gavel” Award to Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Pete Domenci (R-NM) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Reid’s award was given for his “commitment to science in public service, including support for Congressional Science Fellows.” Sen. Domenici was honored for “strong leadership in the areas of energy, water and land management.”

Since 1999, AASG has presented 13 Pick and Gavel Awards to recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing the role of geoscience in public policy.

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NMA generally supports OSM rules, but urges agency to make adjustments

NMA said this week it generally supports the Office of Surface Mining’s (OSM) proposed excess spoil/stream buffer zone (SBZ) rules, adding that clarification of the issue is necessary based on a history of litigation.

In comments submitted with the agency, NMA asked OSM to consider the following adjustments in the excess spoil proposal:

• Modify the language to say that excess spoil should be minimized “to the extent possible using best technology currently available,” instead of the proposed rule language which simply says, “to the maximum extent possible;”
• Clarify that the applicant will not be forced to evaluate alternatives that are not economically feasible;
• Ensure that in implementing the rule, the agency not only tries to minimize the amount of excess spoil but also considers maximizing recovery of the coal reserves, which is also required by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA);
• Clarify what the term “excess spoil” includes;
• Ensure that requirements for alternatives analyses are not duplicative with requirements from other agencies;
• Limit applicability of the rule to steep slope areas and to situations where excess spoil is being placed in stream channels; and,
• Allow post-mining mitigation measures to count as minimizing impacts.

• The rule should not be interpreted to stop any of the practices that are currently authorized by OSM or the state regulatory authorities;
• The rule should be clear that it does not apply to underground mining beneath a stream, except to the extent that there are surface operations and surface activities incident to such underground coal mining that would adversely impact the stream;
• OSM should explain more clearly how the 100-foot measurement will be applied;
• OSM must maintain its current definitions such that the SBZ rule will not be applied to watercourses in small watersheds or to ephemeral streams; and,
• Prohibiting mining in the SBZ would sterilize 92.5 percent of the reserves in the Appalachian region and would have an extremely adverse effect on the nation’s energy supply.

NMA members seeking additional information on this issue should contact Bradford Frisby at 202-463-2643, or bfrisby@nma.org.

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Bush praises AmerCable for training, contributions to local economy

In a public conversation on job training and the economy, Hogan discussed AmerCable’s tuition reimbursement program for employees and noted that “education is the great equalizer. I came from parents with no education and put five kids through college and four through post-graduate school. The best thing a parent can give to children is the gift of learning, and it just changes everybody’s life around,” he said.

Bush praised Hogan for “being a responsible CEO, somebody who understands that you’ve got to take care of your workers and you’ve got to make sure they’re trained.” He also noted that AmerCable is a significant contributor to the local economy, employing 220 people, and having major overseas sales.

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Additional BLM funds sought to speed permitting in Nevada

“Nevada is home to over half of all this nation’s mining claims, yet BLM officials in our state have inadequate funding and not enough staff to process these claims,” he said. BLM said it has 120,000 mining claims in Nevada, nearly 20,000 of which were filed last year.

Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association, said speeding the permit process is long overdue and that delays of a decade or more are not unusual. “We’re in a situation now with gold mining, the industry is growing, there’s a lot more exploration activity, we’re looking at mines to do expansions and they can’t get started until the BLM goes through the permitting process.”

NMA Senior Economist Connie Holmes agreed, noting that nationally, permit delays threaten to drive mining companies overseas. “We need policies that turn the U.S. from the least attractive location for investment into the most attractive location,” she said.

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Supreme Court denies certiorari for jurisdictional waters cases

The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to hear the Deaton, Newdunn and Rapanos jurisdictional waters cases.

NMA had filed an amicus brief in January, urging the court to hear the Deaton case on the basis that the conflict in the courts over the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulatory definitions and federal CWA jurisdiction is symptomatic of a regulatory program lacking coherent principles, clarity and consistency.

In addition, NMA argued that the administrative review process is costly, providing inconsistent and unfair results while further eroding confidence and credibility in the program.

NMA said it will continued to advocate these points and stressed that resolution of CWA issues used to define the scope of federal jurisdiction is imperative to a credible and workable regulatory program. NMA members seeking additional information should contact Karen Bennett at 202-463-3240, or kbennett@nma.org.

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Idardo land permanently protected under transaction agreement

Idardo previously sold to the trust for about $3 million 3,042 acres of mining claims in a remote basin above Telluride. That was part of the Red Mountain Project, a sweeping effort to protect potentially developable high country land.

Newmont spokesman Doug Hock said the company’s goal “was always to return the land to public use.” Newmont has spent close to $20 million on reclamation work at Idarado sites in Ouray and Telluride, which are now in the monitoring stage.

Much of the trust’s acquisition will be turned over to the U.S. Forest Service. Including the latest transaction, the project has spent nearly $10 million to purchase 7,175 acres of private mining claims in the San Juan Mountains.

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Hearing Room dedicated in honor of Commissioner Richard V. Backley

Backley, who died last October at age 76, was one of the original Commissioners appointed by President Carter in 1978.

The memorial plaque, which designates the Backley hearing room, describes Backley as “the indispensable Commissioner” whose record-setting length of service “bespoke his genuine respect for his colleagues and the parties and counsel who appeared before him.”

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Kerry calls for higher mining fees during economic policy speech

“We will free resources and reduce the deficit by taking on corporate welfare,” Kerry said. “John McCain and I have introduced legislation to end corporate welfare as we know it In a Kerry administration, we will fight for that bill; we will take our case to the public if we have to – and we will pass it.”

Kerry added: “Today, mining companies buy up public lands for five dollars an acre. And, Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton, dodges taxes with offshore havens while it gets billions from no-bid government contracts. If I’m elected President, those days will come to an end.”

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Newsbits

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