Well I heard back from Raul, this is what he said:
March 19, 2007
Dear Mr. Wright :
Thank you for contacting me regarding the reform of the 1872 Mining Act. I appreciate your taking the time to communicate with me about this important issue.
I must respectfully disagree with you about reform of the Mining Act of 1872. This 135 year old law is in dire need of reform and I have strongly supported efforts to update the law since being elected to Congress. The Mining Act simply has not kept pace with the evolving values of our modern society in terms of protection of our special public lands and waters. Indeed, the environmental degradation that has been left behind by old mines is one of the top pollution sources in the West. It is one of my highest priorities in the 110th Congress to see this law reformed.
Among other things, the law must be updated to create mining-free zones to protect important wildlife habitat, scenic, historic and cultural resources, and water quality. In areas where mining is still allowed, mining companies must begin to pay royalties and fees to the American taxpayers for the resources they extract. In addition, the federal government must require adequate bonding in order to ensure that clean up of mining sites takes place, so that companies are no longer allowed to abandon mines, which has resulted in billions of dollars in clean up costs funded by the American taxpayer. Lastly, the patenting of mining claims, which results in almost-free privatization of public lands, must stop altogether.
In the 109th Congress, I was a cosponsor of H.R. 3968, a bill sponsored by Congressman Nick Rahall. The bill has not yet been introduced, but I will be cosponsoring it again as soon as it is.
Thank you again for communicating with me regarding this important matter. I hope you will keep in touch with me about other issues of concern to you.
Sincerely,
Raul M. Grijalva
Member of Congress
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And here is my response:
Raul,
Thanks for your response. While I do agree with you on some things, I
also don't agree on others.
I do agree that the mining industry could use some revisions on how it
handles it's waste. It is common knowledge that mining in large
quantities produces lots of hazaderous waste, and I think finding an
eco friendly solution would be good for all parties involved. I'm all
about saving the planet
Some things I don't agree on is your campaign to end mining entirely. I
think this is a ludacris idea in itself, as mining is responsible for a
lot of the products we use on a daily basis, like copper. Without
copper we wouldn't have the penny, or some plumbing, or air
conditioning. Without gold we wouldn't have mother boards for
computers, or the shields on space helmets, etc. It also gives jobs to
a lot of citizens, and pays a lot of taxes to the Government. On a
smaller level, there are 10's of thousands of good hearted American
citizens who mine and prospect either as a hobby, or as a lifestyle.
These are the people paying taxes to the Government, working good jobs,
living full American lives. These people are the "bread and butter" of
our Country.
I also think doing away with the patenting of mining claims is also a
bad move. There are better ways of finding a common agreement between
the mining industry and the eco friendly types. I also fail to see how
privatizing of state land is such an issue with you. The state sells
trust land all the time to developers, who destroy the land in an
effort to make money building housing developments. They have been
known to remove such precious things as ancient Indian Petroglyphs,
drawn on rocks thousands of years ago, and moved so someone could sell
a house.
I hope I have given you some thought about what your doing. I truely
feel you don't know exactly what your getting into, or who your hurting
with your aggressive campaign against mining. I will always support you
in an effort to find a more eco friendly way to deal with mining waste
and land management, but will not support you in destroying the
livelyhood of so many Americans.
There were two of them in Sonora.
