Antonio Farzan opines that it is understandable that environmentalists are worried that the Obama administration moratorium on uranium mining in the area surrounding the Grand Canyon could be up next on the chopping block. That moratorium was announced by the Department of the Interior in 2012, and banned new uranium claims until 2032. Existing claims and mines were unaffected. It was good news to environmental groups like the Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club, and the League of Conservation Voters, who had spent years pointing out the environmental hazards of uranium mining, particularly the threat of polluting the Colorado River, which provides water to 40 million people in Arizona and the Southwest (all claims of which have little or no legitimate support). But the new administration signed an executive order promoting energy independence and economic growth. It requires heads of each government agency to identify any federal guidelines that are getting in the way of domestic energy production, and to advise which ones can legally be reversed.
The report shall include specific recommendations that, to the extent permitted by law, could alleviate or eliminate aspects of agency actions that burden domestic energy production, the executive order states. If the mining ban were overturned, the action would likely receive significant local support. Mohave County officials have already been lobbying the administration to lift the ban. And both Arizona senators have publicly expressed their opposition to it. When the moratorium was announced in 2012, Jeff Flake, then a congressman, described it as another example of the Obama administration overreach that will stymie local economic growth and local job creation, and Senator John McCain called it a devastating blow to job creation in northern Arizona. In addition, the Department of the Interior would have to make sure that allowing new mining claims would not violate the National Environmental Policy Act.
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