Congress could act on Resolution copper land deal in omnibus bill

The Politico.com web site got a draft version of a proposed omnibus bill that the lame duck Congress could vote on this year. Politico says the bill includes a "national volcano alert system and language allowing a controversial Arizona copper mine" the latter being the land exchange needed for the Resolution copper mine near Superior to go forward [right, lands involved in the Resolution Copper exchange].

These "measures are two of the dozens of bills that Democrats may include in a massive omnibus that would create a host of new national parks, monuments and wilderness areas and pave the way for dozens of Western water projects."

Politico says of the Resolution land deal, "Backed by Arizona Republicans John McCain and Jon Kyl, it would allow Resolution Copper to exchange the land surrounding its proposed mine site for the company’s private holdings in the area. An earlier version of the legislation would have directed the Interior Department to make the exchange, but the Obama administration opposed that version and a subsequent committee compromise gives Interior final say on whether it goes forward."

They say Republicans are lining up against the omnibus, which is described as the Democrats best chance of getting legislation through before the new congress next year.

The omnibus also addresses abandoned mine lands:

Legislation that would allow Western states receiving money from an abandoned coal mine cleanup fund to spend it on gold, copper and other hard-rock mine sites. The bill targets Western states that have no more abandoned coal sites but still contribute to the cleanup fund through taxes on coal production. The Obama administration has opposed versions of the measure in the House and Senate, as it instead wants to cut off payments to the Western states and use the revenue to pay down the deficit.

Omnibus lands bill fails in House

The giant omnibus lands bill, S-22, that passed the US Senate easily, was defeated in the House last week, 282-144. The bill combines160 public lands, water and resources bills from across the country, including reauthorization of the National Geologic Mapping Act that funds much of the geologic mapping we and other geological surveys do in most states.

The massive bill was intended to offer something for everyone to attract votes, but House members argued that many of the bills in the 1,200 page package had never been heard in the House. E&E News says, "The omnibus would designate more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states and would establish three new national park units, a new national monument, three new national conservation areas, more than 1,000 miles of national wild and scenic rivers and four new national trails. It would enlarge the boundaries of more than a dozen existing national park units and establish 10 new national heritage areas. It would also authorize numerous land exchanges and conveyances to help local Western communities and address water resource and supply issues, and includes provisions to improve land management."

An amendment was added to ensure that the bill would not close off lands that are already open to hunting and fishing, but that wasn't enough.

The Senate may add an Idaho wilderness provision, and attach the ominbus to another bill already in the pipeline, in an effort to produce something more attractive to the House.

Federal squeeze on geoscience funding

The outcome of the federal omnibus spending bill for fiscal year is a "squeeze on funding of geosciences research across the federal agencies," according to the American Geological Institute, in their Government Affairs Program monthly review. AGI says the omnibus bill cut $22 billion in spending from House and Senate bills, because of the President's veto of the "mini-omnibus" bill earlier.

As a result, increases to science agencies are small and many will be more than lost because of rising costs. However, a few programs will see meaningful increases or were restored from proposed elimination. According to AGI:

• The Department of Energy’s Office of Science, where additional basic geosciences research is funded also received a last minute reduction of about $500 million compared to funding levels in the House and Senate proposals. Again the geosciences will see real cuts to basic research support, continuing a trend in the Office of Science of decreasing funding for geosciences.

• NASA’s Earth science division, Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and the U.S. Geological Survey will receive small, sustaining increases for geosciences research to keep a wide variety of programs and projects afloat.

• Congress restored a $22 million requested cut for the USGS Mineral Resources Program, giving it a total budget of about $50 million and provided $6.4 million for the Water Resources Research Institutes.

Details on the entire federal R&D funding is at the AAAS site, http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy08.htm.

The AGI monthly review can be read at http://www.agiweb.org/gap/email/review1207.html.

Omnibus lands bill includes Arizona proposals

The U.S. Senate is considering take early and fast action on an omnibus lands bill that carries forward from last year. The omnibus has something like 150 separate bills including 15 proposals for wilderness, dozens for studies for national parks, heritage areas and scenic rivers, including areas in Arizona. The bill also contains reauthorization of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Act, something dear to state geologists. Part of the strategy seems to be to include so many proposals, that everyone will have a stake in seeing it passed.

Sen. Harry Reid says the bill will be come forward under a rule meaning it will be place on the Senate calendar immediately without going through the committee process.

A controversial section would formalize the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System. There is a Dept. of Interior inspector general investigation into possible illegal coordination between lobbyists for environmental groups and federal officials of the system.

I found these Arizona proposals and sponsors in the list:

• Special Resource Studies, Walnut Canyon study: S 722 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 1558 - Renzi (R-AZ) /HR5751 - Pastor (D-AZ)
• Sierra Vista Subwatershed feasibility study, AZ: S 1929 - Kyl (R-AZ) - HR 3328 – Giffords (D-AZ)
• Additions to the Natl & Wild Scenic Rivers System: Fossil Creek, AZ NWSR: S 86 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 199 – Renzi (R-AZ)
• Additions to the Natl Trails System: AZ Natl Scenic Trail: S 1304 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 2297 - Giffords (D-AZ) [above, credit Arizona Trail Assoc.]
  

Earlier this week, I got an email opposing the bill from the American Land Rights Association, which calls it "the largest land grab of the last 20 years."

Resolution Copper land exchange bill dies with Congress adjourning

A bill to allow the land exchange needed for the Resolution Copper mine to move forward never got voted on by the time the U.S. Senate adjourned. It had been added to the omnibus Senate public lands package of 100+ bills that needed unanimous consent for approval. But a number of Senators objected to the size of the package and it died. [right, map showing parcels involved in land exchange bill. Credit, Resolution Copper]

In fact, the Resolution land exchange was removed from the omnibus bill, which led Sen. McCain to oppose it, according to the New York Times. [updated 12-30-10]

Science, technology, and American competitiveness

Tom Friedman, NY Times columnist, gets it.

Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel Corp. gets it.

Gov. Janet Napolitano gets it.

Read Friedman's "The World is Flat," Barrett's op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle or Gov. Napolitano's "Innovation America" plan published by the National Governor's Association.

What they get is that American leadership - economic and political - is waning, due in large part to our falling behind in science and technology. The key to turning around America's fortunes lies in making long-term investment in our R&D capabilities.

Fareed Zakaria, columnist and international editor for Newsweek, this week writes,

"To put it more bluntly: the United States is in the beginning of a period of relative decline. It may not be steep or dramatic, but the fact that it's happening is clear. Even if one assumes a slowdown, the other big economies will still grow at two and three times the pace of the West. Over time they will take up a larger share of the global economy—and the United States and Western Europe will have thinner slices. This is not defeatism, it's math."

Barrett's piece is equally strongly worded. He concludes that, "The only way we can hope to compete is with brains and ideas that set us above the competition - and that only comes from investments in education and R&D. Practically everyone who has traveled outside the United States in the last decade has seen this dynamic at work. The only place where it is apparently still a deep, dark secret is in Washington, D.C."

Historically, as much as 85% of growth in US per capita income is from technology advances. In the last decade however, we have seen consumption in this country exceed GDP growth by about $600 billion a year, according to the lead story in Business Week by Michael Mandel. This essentially amounts to $3 trillion more being spent since 2001 than we earned. We did it apparently by borrowing on the equity in our rapidly rising home values.

Now with the subprime debacle and housing prices flat or dropping, we cannot expect to maintain the artificially high growth of recent years.

Congress is rushing to approve a stimulus package of $120-160 billion, plus or minus. The intent is to put more money in people's hand to continue consumer spending. Economists say this is the fastest way to prime the economy and that sounds like a valid solution, for the short term.

But it is only a stop-gap measure. Once everyone spends their $600 checks, what do we do next? Everyone agrees that long term investment in science and technology is the answer.

Last year Congress passed, with great bipartisanship, the America Competes Act, an outgrowth of recommendations from a seminal report published by the National Academy of Science in 2005, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." But in response to President Bush's veto of funding bills, Congress cut about $22 billion from the 11 appropriation bills to satisfy the President's requested budget level and the omnibus became law. As Craig Barrett laments, funding was stripped for the America Competes Act.

One of the things scientists and educators are doing to change the dynamics is engage the public more about the critical role of science and technology in society. I've been involved in helping set up the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS), whose goal is that,

Americans will be empowered to appreciate the pragmatic outcomes of science, to distinguish science from non-science, and to participate in social discourse that provides insight into the nature of science.

COPUS is networking hundreds of thousands of scientists, educators, and others in the scientific enterprise to share best practices and resources in connecting with the public and mobilizing them. As Craig Barrett concluded, "I genuinely think the citizenry of this country wants the United States to compete. If only our elected leaders weren't holding us back."

Bill will create Mining Advisory Council to oversee state agencies

House Bill 2617 is becoming more like a mining omnibus with the addition of amendments that create a Mining Advisory Council (ARS 41-4601) to oversee state agency rules, policies, and budgets.  The list of provisions in the bill already covered lots of ground before the latest changes.  

Provisions (prepared by Legislative staff):

·          Removes the requirement of three additional years experience in mining, smelting or open pit mining as a qualification of the Inspector.

·          Broadens the qualifications of the Inspector to having at least four years experience in any type of mining rather than underground mining.

·          Allows an agency to charge a person a fee during any fiscal year in which the agency’s budget is less than the amount budgeted for that agency in FY 2009-10.

·          Allows a person to request an agency to expedite an application review by requesting that the agency use the services of an outside consultant and agreeing to pay the agency the consultant’s services as provided by statute.

·          Requires the Council to accept early review petitions of a proposed rule pursuant to current law.

·          Establishes a mandatory 60-day comment period for persons to provide written or oral comments, on proposed rules to the Council.

·          Prohibits an agency from adopting requirements that exceed or conflict with relevant federal requirements, unless authorized by law.

·          Allows an agency to adopt federal rules pursuant to current law or to adopt rules to reflect local conditions as long as the rules are consistent with and do not exceed federal requirements, except if authorized by law.

·          Requires the Council to accept early review if the early petition is filed by a person adversely impacted by the proposed rule.

·          Extends the date an agency issuing licenses must have final rules in place establishing a timeframe to deny or grant each type of license that it issues to December 31, 2011. 

·          Changes the penalty fee for an agency failing to comply with the overall timeframe to 5% of the total fees received by the agency for reviewing.

·          Changes the compliance period timeframe to begin on September 1, 2011 for agencies that have established timeframes before July 1, 2011 and by September 1^st of each year thereafter for all agencies that issue licenses.

·          Allows groundwater withdrawn as part of a mitigation of a nonhazardous release or in connection with an aquifer protection permit to be used to fill or refill a body of water.

·          Exempts treatment and reinjection of groundwater into the aquifer by a reinjection well or other means that occur as part of a mitigation activity pursuant to current law or in connection with an aquifer protection permit issues to a metal mining facility.

·          Includes all withdrawals and uses of groundwater related to a mining operation, as well as compliance with applicable environmental controls, in the definition of mineral extraction and processing use of groundwater for the purposes of groundwater statutes.

·          Allows groundwater to be transported away from a groundwater basin in connection with a remedial action pursuant to CERCLA or current statute as part of mitigation activities or in connection with an aquifer protection permit issues to a metal mining facility.

·          Requires the Director of ADWR to approve or deny the drilling of a well within 45 days after receipt of the notice of intention to drill if the proposed well is located within one mile of a mitigation of nonhazardous releases site.

·          Stipulates that persons are not required to file a certificate of disclosure with ADEQ in proceedings in which ADEQ or the state of Arizona is or was a party.

·          Specifies that point source discharges to navigable waters are not considered to be discharging facilities.

·          Requires the Director of ADEQ to confirm that a violation occurs at the applicable point of compliance before determining whether to revoke a general permit.

·          Clarifies that the following changes be made regarding mitigation activities as they pertain to applicability of requirements under ADWR:  

Ø        Any person conducting mitigation activities must obtain and comply with applicable permits, approvals or other authorizations required by ADWR.

Ø        Authorizes the Director of ADWR to waive it’s applicable permits, approvals or authorizations if it is determined that the permits, approval or other authorization unreasonably limits the completion of mitigation activities as long as the waiver does not conflict with the statutory intent of the permit, approval or other authorization.

Ø        ADWR must expedite the processing and issuance of permits, approvals or authorizations to facilitate the prompt conduct of mitigation activities.

Ø        If ADWR fails to issue or deny a permit within 120 days from the receipt of a completed application for a permit, approval or authorization, ADWR may authorize the party conducting the mitigation activities to proceed with that action without any penalties for failure to obtain a permit, approval or authorization and is still required to comply with the substantive requirements of such permit, approval or authorization.

Ø        The person conducting the mitigation activities who uses groundwater withdrawn in an active management area must continue to pay the groundwater withdrawal fee for the groundwater the person withdrew and used or received and used.

·          Mandates the Director of ADEQ and the Director of ADWR to coordinate efforts to expedite mitigation activities, including obtaining information pertinent to mitigation investigations and beneficial use of water withdrawn for remediation or mitigation purposes.

·          Authorizes the Director of ADWR to waive any regulatory requirement adopted pursuant to water law with respect to a site or portion of a site as part of mitigation order issues or other mitigation activities undertaken for that site or portion of that site if the regulatory requirement conflicts with the implementation of the mitigation activities, provided that the waiver does not result in adverse impacts to other land and water users.

·          Defines the terms license and CERCLA.

·          Makes technical and conforming changes.

Lands bill offers something for everyone

The U.S. House passed the Omnibus Lands bill, following Senate passage earlier this year and the legislation is expected to be signed by Pres. Obama. I blogged after the Senate vote about the parts of the bill that directly affect lands in Arizona. These include (with initial sponsors in parentheses):

• Special Resource Studies, Walnut Canyon study: S 722 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 1558 - Renzi (R-AZ) /HR5751 - Pastor (D-AZ)
• Sierra Vista Subwatershed feasibility study, AZ: S 1929 - Kyl (R-AZ) - HR 3328 – Giffords (D-AZ)
• Additions to the Natl & Wild Scenic Rivers System: Fossil Creek, AZ NWSR: S 86 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 199 – Renzi (R-AZ) [right, Fossil Creek, in bold, between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Credit, US Bur. of Rec. & USFS]
  
• Additions to the Natl Trails System: AZ Natl Scenic Trail: S 1304 - McCain (R-AZ) - HR 2297 - Giffords (D-AZ)

In addition, the bill reauthorized the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Act, which funds geologic quadrangle mapping by the AZGS and other state geological surveys.

Another piece of the bill "settles the Navajos' water rights claims in the San Juan River Basin and authorizes a pipeline to serve Gallup and Navajo communities in New Mexico and eastern Arizona" [Arizona Republic]

Part of the strategy of the authors of the package was to include 170 separate proposals, to build broad support for the legislation. It appears to have paid off.