The stars are finally aligning for mining-reform legislation after more than a decade of uncertainty, with Senate Majority Leader — and miner’s son — Harry Reid (D-Nev.) playing the unlikely peacemaker.
Reid’s home state is the world’s fourth-largest source of gold, and he has opposed past proposals to revamp the General Mining Law, a 135-year-old act that allows hard-rock miners to use public lands without paying royalties. But Reid is signaling a desire for compromise this Congress, thanks in part to concerted outreach by the mining bill’s two House authors.
Bringing Reid into mining reform talks was among the first moves of House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and energy subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.). When Reid’s staff suggested a recess field hearing on the issue, Rahall and Costa accommodated Reid’s busy schedule and made his testimony the centerpiece, even dining with the majority leader on the eve of the hearing.
“There’s no such thing as a one-house bill,” Costa said in an interview, adding that Reid’s “cooperation and collaboration on how to solve this problem is essential if you’re going to get agreement.”
Rahall also hailed Reid’s openness to reform, underscoring the importance of bicameral talks to avoid the intra-party tension that can take contentious bills off the fast track.
“Senator Reid has always shown a willingness to work across the aisle and across the Hill to seek compromise … his continued leadership and support have been critical in seeing that mining-law reform happens sooner, rather than later,” Rahall said via e-mail.
Reid’s remarks at the August hearing in Elko, Nev., also delighted environmentalists and other mining-reform advocates, who saw a looming foe turn into a potential ally. Dan Randolph, executive director of Great Basin Mine Watch and another witness at the hearing, said the debate now is over what a new mining bill will look like, rather than whether it can happen.
Reid “sounded more open to discussing reform … and open to listen to a wider array of perspectives on it than he has in the past,” Randolph said.
Lauren Pagel, legislative coordinator for Earthworks, called this session the best chance for a deal in 15 years.
“There is a lot of good will between the industry and environmental organizations, between Reid and Rahall,” Pagel said. “Everyone’s talking together in a congenial manner, which is new on this issue.”
Revising the arcane mining law is a high priority for environmentalists, who want hard-rock mining companies, as well as sportsmen’s groups, held to higher cleanup standards. Even government-waste crusaders such as Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), which believes free mining on public lands to be fiscally unsound, have joined the cause.
Velma Smith, mining campaign director at the National Environmental Trust, attributed Reid’s new outlook on reform to his strong environmental record as well as shifting attitudes in the West. The mining industry has consolidated in recent years, she noted, and may back Reid’s call for change this year rather than take a regulatory hit from a Democratic president after 2008.
Noting that the mining industry was not happy with the Clinton administration, Smith said it is now asking itself whether it is time to get the law reformed “in a way that’s reasonable, as opposed to feel new pressure with a new administration.”
What the final bill will look like, however, remains a challenge to Reid, whose father was a gold miner and whose son-in-law once lobbied for two of Nevada’s leading gold-mining companies. Many mining companies also hailed Reid’s recess testimony while continuing to believe, in the words of National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich, that “the Rahall bill, as introduced, would do incalculable harm to the industry.”
“We’re eager to reform” the mining laws, Popovich said, “but we’re not going to put our head in a noose.”
Russ Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association, said his staff is in ongoing talks with Reid’s over the contents of the bill that would ultimately come before the Senate. The 8 percent royalty Rahall would impose comes from gross proceeds, but Fields prefers modeling the new fees after Nevada’s system, which charges miners 5 percent royalties based on the net costs of extracting rock.
“We’re in no way opposing a royalty,” Fields said. “We’re saying it should be a fair return to the public, but it should be fair to the industry.”
TCS co-founder Jill Lancelot echoed the elation at Reid’s amenable stance on mining reform, but she warned that Rahall’s bill could go into conference with its royalty provisions far weaker than intended.
“I think there will be a bill passed,” Lancelot said. “I’m very concerned about what it will look like.”
The first preview of the Senate’s mining bill will come in two weeks, when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans a hearing, said Reid spokesman Jon Summers. One longtime supporter of the mining industry is likely to skip that hearing, giving reform backers another shot in the arm: Larry Craig (R-Idaho), a senior member of the panel.