Colorado Wilderness Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, my amendment would require us to know what we are doing before we take the overwhelming radical step of withdrawing more than a million acres of federal lands from mineral development.
It may come as a shock but even today we know little about the geologic mineral makeup of our lands. Minerals that were very important in the past like gold and silver are not always the key to our future technologies.
Today, we are finding a whole new suite of minerals that are critically important to our future, while rare earths and lithium are the stars, important minerals like cobalt, manganese and copper are quickly becoming equally both important and challenging to find and produce.
However, this bill in front of us has no recognition of the importance of the breadth of minerals that may be included in the areas covered by this legislation. Which is why my amendment is so important today.
This amendment will require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a full mineral resource survey of the withdrawal areas prior to enacting this withdrawal. This is important because of the national security impacts of this proposed withdrawal that seeks to permanently ban oil, natural gas, geothermal, uranium and other critical minerals and rare earths on over a million acres of land in Arizona,
I will continue to make the case that the importance of the uranium alone is key for keeping these lands open, however I believe that without this amendment this bill will have a negative impact on our national security as it aims to permanently prohibit mining of rare earths and critical minerals on a massive, massive swath of land.
Earlier I mentioned the importance of lithium and there is no question that lithium is critically important to our technology and energy future. However, we don't often know where all the lithium resources are in the United States. For example, in September of last year, the USGS funded an earth MRI program in Arizona to study the lithium resources of the Big Sandy Valley in Arizona. I include in the Record the press release from USGS.
This study will help us to define and understand the lithium resources in this region. Yet it is important for us to reflect on the fact that we didn't know about these resources until recently, had we closed off this area, like this bill proposes to do to more than one million acres of Arizona, we may have never known. Yet because we have the ability to examine this area, which is not subject to a withdrawal, we are going to study and hopefully find rich resources we can produce to secure our nation's future.
Before I close Mr. Speaker, let me stress, the underlying bill represents one of the largest legislative land grabs ever considered by Congress. This effort to permanently lock away the highest grade and largest deposit of uranium in the country will further increase our reliance on foreign adversaries like Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Instead of rushing headlong into the endeavor of permanently making this million acre area off limits, we should know what the true impacts of this legislation will be on the long-term national security of our country.
This amendment would not kill this legislation, instead it would ensure that the proposed withdrawal can only go ahead once we clearly access the region, clearly understand the picture of what we are withdrawing and what other resources may be impacted by this action.
I say to my colleagues, lets slow down this process so we know what we are doing, what we are impacting and the real impacts of making such a large and bountiful parcel of land off limits could have on our mineral security.
I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment. Earth MRI Funds Critical Minerals Projects in Arizona [Sept. 28, 2020] A total of $133,016 will fund new research and preserve important data across the Grand Canyon State
Flagstaff, Ariz.--The U.S. Geological Survey and the Association of American State Geologists are pleased to announce $133,016 in funding for critical minerals projects in Arizona. These funds are for the fiscal year 2020 under the USGS Mineral Resources Program's Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI.
The funds include grants to the Arizona Geological Survey for geologic mapping and geochemical analyses for an area of the Big Sandy Valley with a focus on lithium and to preserve and publicly available information on critical mineral resources.
``These new projects in Arizona represent the next step in our ambitious effort to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the United States and to identify areas that may have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources,'' said Jim Reilly, director of the USGS. ``The identification and prioritization of prospective areas were done through our strong partnership with the state geological surveys in a series of workshops in Fall 2019.''
``This program will revitalize and update the science and geologic research and data compilation that is needed in many states for the United States to identify new geologic associations,'' said John Yellich, director of the Michigan Geological Survey and president of AASG.
``The Earth MRI effort is an outgrowth of the strong partnership between the AASG members and the USGS,'' said Warren Day, Earth MRI lead scientist for the USGS. ``The USGS is grateful for the scientific input and support from the state geological surveys, resulting in a robust body of information useful for many applications beyond mineral resources.''
The geologic mapping efforts, which are managed through the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, will refine our scientific understanding of the geologic framework of areas of interest. In addition to helping identify mineral potential, these maps also support decisions about use of land, water, energy and minerals and help to mitigate the impact of geologic hazards on communities.
In 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order 13817, a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. This executive order called on agencies across the federal government to develop a strategy to reduce the nation's susceptibility to critical mineral supply disruptions.
In May of 2018, DOI released a list of 35 minerals deemed critical to the U.S. economy and security, based on a methodology by the USGS. This list forms the foundation of the full federal strategy.
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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, my amendment is very simple, it only asks Congress to do one thing, respect the will of the local people in the management of our lands.
This amendment would remove from the bill the lands included in my Congressional district from the massive mineral withdrawal included in the bill. My local constituents and counties support this amendment and I encourage my colleagues to respect our wishes. Under general leave, I include in the Record a letter from Mohave County opposing this legislation.
Mohave County Arizona, which is the primary area which this amendment would help protect, is currently facing nearly 10 percent unemployment and has a per capita income of less than thirty-five thousand dollars a year. These economic conditions should be proof enough that we need to be promoting economic development in these regions, not simply closing off an important path to economic security for the people of Mohave County.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle will argue that these lands belong to all the American people, which is true, but we must respect the local concerns.
When I highlight that offshore oil drilling in California would reduce our dependence on foreign oil, stop us from subsidizing Russia and Saudi Arabia, my colleagues from California scream out ``respect our wishes, we don't want drilling''.
So I call on them here today, join me in supporting my constituents who are crying out for the chance, just the chance to keep the potential of high paying jobs open and support this amendment.
It may come as a shock but even today we know little about the geologic mineral makeup of our lands. Minerals that were very important in the past like gold and silver are not always the key to our future technologies.
Today, we are finding a whole new suite of minerals that are critically important to our future, while rare earths and lithium are the stars, important minerals like cobalt, manganese and copper are quickly becoming equally both important and challenging to find and produce.
This area in Mohave County has tremendous potential and keeping that potential open and available to the people of the county is critical to ensuring a rich economic future.
This amendment only removes the area within my district, it will allow other members to do with their regions as they will.
This amendment would not kill this legislation, instead it would ensure that the people I represent in Arizona have their wishes respected and the land managed in a manner consistent with the will of the local communities.
I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment. Mohave County Board of Supervisors, February 24, 2021. Hon. Paul Gosar, U.S. Congress, Washington, DC.
Congressman Gosar: The Mohave County Board of Supervisors is writing to offer our support for your amendment to H.R. 803--Colorado Wilderness Act of 2021. As you know, the passage of this legislation will have a grave effect on Mohave County, Arizona, and our neighboring counties in Utah. Uranium mining in the past has been the forefront of our economic growth in Mohave County and if allowed to continue will bring in nearly $29 billion to our local economy over a 42 year period. The passage of H.R. 803 would make permanent a July 2012 moratorium on uranium mining in our area. The language of your amendment would help alleviate the permanent economic loss we would sustain under the passage of H.R. 803. We strongly support the passing of this amendment as presented in the Rules Committee and the House or Representatives. Without this amendment, the financial stability of our economy in Mohave County would drastically suffer.
In 2012, the Secretary of the Interior imposed a 20 year ban on over 1 million acres of land in the Arizona Strip Area for the purpose of Uranium mining. This ban included both public lands and National Forest System lands. This ban took away much needed growth and jobs from our area. Secretary Salazar at the time issued this withdrawal without complying with the law requiring coordination with local governments. The Federal Land Policy Management Act, USC Section 171 requires that the Secretary and his designees ``coordinate'' with local government as to development and implementation of any plan or management action. Coordination is defined in the Act as requiring prior notice of proposed plans and actions to the local government officials (``prior'' meaning prior to public announcements, and early enough to provide ``meaningful'' participation by the local officials in the ``development'' of the plan or action.). The congressional mandate of coordination also requires the Secretary to use all practicable means to reach consistency between the federal plan/management action and local policy, plan or law. All of which Secretary Salazar did not do.
Making this ban permanent based on misinformation will have lasting effects on Mohave County. We respect and take a responsibility for protecting the Grand Canyon, but saying that the Grand Canyon will suffer because of mining is inaccurate. Secretary Salazar's reasoning behind the withdrawal was out of concern that it could damage the region's drinking water and the park's water quality. Bureau of Land Management officials contradicted those claims by explaining that their Arizona Strip field office had no evidence of contamination of water, and had no evidence of problems with the safe operation of the uranium mines in operation on the lands.
Uranium mining is important and useful for many reasons. The lands in the ``Strip'' contain the nation's high grade uranium deposits and enough uranium to provide power generation for the state of California for over 20 years. Uranium is useful in many ways. It is used by our military for national security and defense. Uranium metal is very dense and heavy. When it is depleted (DU), uranium is used by the military as shielding to protect Army tanks, and also in parts of bullets and missiles. The military also uses enriched uranium to power nuclear propelled Navy ships and submarines, and in nuclear weapons. A permanent withdrawal of uranium mining from the ``Strip'' harms the American people by removing between 326-375 million lbs (the equivalent electricity generating capacity for the entire state of California's 40 million people for 22.4 years) of uranium.
From a national security standpoint, domestic utilities now import 90 percent of the uranium used to operate America's 104 nuclear reactors. Thirty years ago, these reactors used U.S. mined uranium for 100 percent of electricity production, The nation cannot be pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear fuel. In sum, these deposits represent the last available use of our public lands for economic growth in our region.
The opponents of uranium mining have chosen to ignore the fact that mining with environmentally sound reclamation was conducted from the early 1980s until the price of uranium collapsed in 1993. No mining at all occurred from 1993 until 2010, and the Denison mine which is now operating, is following and often exceeding all environmental and safety laws.
Arizona needs to go back to the roots that led to Arizona being developed, and that is mining. The strict federal and state environmental laws already on the books will protect the public from environmental damage to the Grand Canyon watershed. The mining of uranium however does not affect ground water nor destroy the natural resources of the land. It does not require open pit mining. Upon completion of mining one Breccia Pipe (4 years) the land is placed back into its native state.
We want to thank you for putting forward this amendment. Nuclear energy can be the future of clean energy. We have the resources in this Country to ensure that happens and we have the technology and means to ensure mining that energy is both environmentally safe and protects our natural resources. We stand in support of the amendment. Sincerely, Buster Johnson, Chairman, Mohave County Board of Supervisors.
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