Puny and Defenseless

I'm sure, by now, most of you have noticed the counter at the top of the blog on The Arizona Land Exchange & Conservation Act, otherwise knows as S.3157. The bill got re-introduced, I believe for the third time, on June 18, 2008 by Senator Kyl for another stab by Resolution Copper to get the copper they want from the sacred Apache Leap area, just east of Superior. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests this Wednesday at 2:30 (SD-366, if you're going to be Washington and want to make your views known).

It's not real popular with the public if the counter at the top of the page is any indication. At the time of this writing it is running 14% For and 86% Against, but I don't think public sentiment means a hill of beans difference to those in Washington when Big Money is at stake. Just shut up, folks, and let us handle it, seems to be the situation here.

I've read the bill on the Thomas website several times and believe me, I'm no lawyer and I haven't got one around to tell me what it is I am reading. But what I'm gleaning from this version of the Land Exchange Bill is that this time around, there are some environmental policies in effect, even if it looks a bit skewed to me. (Hey, I'm willing to admit I might be wrong, but I'm just reporting it the way it appears to be written.) And this time, evidently, NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969) will be followed instead of discarded, BUT the Secretary of Agriculture has to issue an Environmental Impact Statement before Resolution Copper "begins production in commercial quantities of valuable minerals". I would have thought that Resolution Copper would have to be responsible for producing an Environmental Impact Report that would then have to be accepted by the Secretary of Agriculture. So why should the onus be on the Federal Government who is going to be the one who will approve it in the end? Maybe I'm missing something here. But it sounds like the same entity is judge and jury. Are there going to be hearings on this Environmental Impact Statement, so the public who appears so negative against this land exchange can weigh in on it? Or are we going to be ignored for this portion too?

I'm aware that the Feds do things differently than the States, but this ignoring of what the public wants, doesn't sit well with me. Resolution Copper badly wants this big vein of copper ore sitting on Federal Land and it looks like this time, the Feds are quite likely to hand it to them, with little regard for what the people want. Will Resolution Copper do the right thing and protect our water supply? Will they ensure that Apache Leap doesn't shift or implode with their block cave mining two miles deep underground? There's no assurances in the Land Exchange Bill. There's very little in the bill that addresses my concerns. So maybe I'm just one of those useless dumb entities that the Feds override to keep "business as usual". But this Land Exchange Bill feels like the Feds and the international copper company are ganging up on the "little guys" to get what they want and the rest of us don't matter.

I'd love to hear other opinions on this matter. It may be that I'm misinformed. What do you think about it?