Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Thursday to review an Obama administration order blocking mineral access on more than 100,000 acres of federal land.
“Under the prior administration, mineral access on federal land was regularly and systematically blocked, harming our nation’s economic and strategic potential,” the Utah Republican wrote in a letter to Perdue and Zinke. “Indeed, millions of acres of federal lands were inappropriately withdrawn from mineral access due to false premises of environmental protectionism and the intentional misuse of statutory authority.”
The Obama administration in January issued a 20-year ban on new mining projects across 100,000 acres of the Klamath-Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon.
The withdrawal had been pushed for years by environmentalists, politicians and local officials worried about nickel mining tainting water that drains into nearby streams.
Bishop contends the land affected by the order contains significant quantities of minerals, including nickel, scandium, and cobalt.
The U.S. imports 100 percent of its scandium (mostly from China), 90 percent of nickel, and 76 percent of cobalt, Bishop said.
He says that an overreliance on importing the minerals, further encouraged by the Obama administration order, is “inconsistent with national security interests.”
Bishop said the order should be invalid because mineral withdrawals, as the process of removing public land from operation is known, can apply to only 5,000 acres or less as permitted by the Federal Lands Policy Management Act.
He asked Perdue and Zinke for a comprehensive review of all mineral withdrawals executed in the last eight years.
“I remain committed to ensuring the public, including industry, has access to our public lands,” Bishop said.
