nuclear-news

For the 4th time, a failed attempt to overturn the ban on uranum mining near Grand Canyon

Fourth Legislative Attack On Grand Canyon Uranium Ban Fails ENews Park Forest,  16 FEBRUARY 2012  WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)  The fourth legislative attempt to block the Obama administration’s ban on new uranium development across 1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park died Tuesday night when the House rules committee ruled it out of order.

The amendment was sponsored by the same three Republican
congressmen who sponsored three previous failed anti-Grand Canyon
legislative proposals — Jeff Flake, Trent Franks and Paul Gosar, all
from Arizona.
The most recent amendment (#133), which would have modified the energy
and infrastructure (H.R. 7) component of the transportation bill now
before Congress, sought to overturn a January decision by Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar enacting a 20-year “mineral withdrawal” that
bans new mining claims and development on existing claims lacking
rights-to-mine across Grand Canyon’s million-acre watershed.

“With each new legislative attack, GOP congressmen make a better case
for permanently — rather than administratively — protecting the public
lands that form Grand Canyon’s watershed,” said Taylor McKinnon,
public lands campaigns director with the Center for Biological
Diversity.

In 2010 and again in 2011, Flake, Franks and Gosar sponsored
legislation that would have prohibited the Interior Department from
enacting the mining ban; in 2011 they attempted to add a rider to a
budget bill — their third failed attempt prior to this most recent
amendment.

Over the past few years, nearly 400,000 people from 90 countries wrote
the Department of the Interior urging it to ban new uranium mining
around the canyon after a uranium boom threatened to bring a new wave
of destructive mining threatening recreation, tourism, wildlife
habitat and waters in Grand Canyon National Park.

The mining ban has won wide support among American Indian tribes,
regional businesses, elected officials, hunting and angling groups,
scientists and conservationists…..
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/science-a-environmental/30994-fourth-legislative-attack-on-grand-canyon-uranium-ban-fails.html

February 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Uranium, USA