Legislation & Regulation
Legislative and Regulatory Update
January 2021 by Scott Harn
• Biden’s incoming administration has green agenda
The Biden transition team continues to announce candidates for an incoming administration, and the focus is clearly on the promotion of a “green” agenda based on the picks announced so far.
Tom Vilsack served as former President Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture and will be asked to return to that position. Jennifer Granholm, who was the Governor and Attorney General of Michigan, will be nominated for Secretary of Energy.
Brenda Mallory of the Southern Environmental Law Center has been nominated to lead the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). She served as general counsel at CEQ during the Obama administration.
And while Neera Tanden has been nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget, her nomination was immediately contested by members of both parties. Tanden is the current CEO of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, DC. The group has long been supported by big corporations such as Boeing, Lockheed, Comcast, Walmart and General Electric, while also courting solar and wind clients and promoting a “progressive policy agenda” according to their website, and a business contribution of $100,000 or more buys membership into their “Green Energy Economic Council.”
Michael Regan has been tapped to lead the EPA. He spent eight years at the Environmental Defense Fund—a group well-known for filing lawsuits against mining and energy projects and for additional listings under the Endangered Species Act—before he became the head of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality.
Deb Haaland will be nominated to lead the Department of Interior. Haaland has been a staunch supporter of the Green New Deal, which aims to switch all energy production to solar and wind power at the expense of oil and coal.
Each of these nominees will pose new challenges to miners and prospectors across the United States. It’s our job to remind them that continued reliance on China and other countries who are not our friends is not a viable plan going forward.
• Habitat definition finalized
The revised definition of “habitat” was finalized and published in the Federal Register on December 16, 2020, to comply with the US Supreme Court ruling in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. FWS, 139 S. Ct. 361 (2018).
The revised definition appropriately prevents federal agencies from designating areas as “critical habitat” when those areas are not current habitat for an endangered or threatened species, are not physically adjacent to current habitat, or have not been habitat in the past.
The Dredge Report
As a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, I’m not allowed to talk about specifics in the court-ordered negotiations currently underway in San Bernardino. However, I do want to let you know we are making progress…
Can't We Just Do Something?
We know we lack critical minerals. We know the causes. We know the need. We have the knowledge we need right now. Why can’t we just take action and fix the problem?
PLP Update
The ESA has become an unwieldy beast that was hijacked by government agencies run amok, and by extreme environmental groups who saw it as a way to lock up public lands and to generate income through exaggerated claims and continuous lawsuits.
SB 838 and the Salem Witch Hunt
In every sense, this was a witch hunt with a preconceived agenda to heavily restrict or outright prohibit most small-scale mining in Oregon.
Oregon's Waldo and Galice Mining Districts Unite
We ask that all who attend this demonstration bring their mining equipment to display and actively talk with the attending public in a courteous fashion about the benefits of suction dredging…
Uphill Battle Continues for California Dredgers
There are currently three controlling agencies or entities over suction dredging in California—and you can make that four if the state legislature decides to further muddy the waters with additional legislation to block suction gold dredging in the state.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Some good news for a change
• New 49ers win Karuk appeal
• Another Oregon bill of concern
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