The House of Representatives today voted to pass the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act. Or, as the Miami Herald put it: House OKs massive copper-mining land swap in southeast Arizona.
I don’t think the prospects are high that the bill will become a law, but it shows you what might happen if the Republicans win the trifecta in next year’s elections.
The House voted Wednesday to swap more than 2,400 acres of copper-rich federal land in Arizona’s Pinal County with a mining company that plans to develop the third-largest undeveloped copper resource in the world.
Resolution Copper Mining said the project would bring 3,700 jobs and up to $61 billion to the region over 40 years. The company is giving the government more than 5,300 acres of land in exchange.
“What this basically does is it shows what a real jobs package is,” said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who sponsored the bill. “Well-paying jobs in a community without taxpayer dollars.”But critics call the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2011 a “giveaway” of valuable U.S. minerals to a foreign-owned company – Resolution Copper is owned by London-based Rio Tinto and Australia-based BHP Billiton.
“Two foreign companies essentially can take their product, make billions of dollars in profit off our land and our minerals and not pay a penny to the American taxpayer,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. “That’s wrong.”
I don’t know how much meaning “American company” has anymore. I love Raul Grijalva, but some of his amendments were silly. He wanted to force the company to hire only Arizonans. He also wanted them to promise not to sell any of the copper to any foreign customers. However, a proposed 8% royalty to the government would be preferable to some land “contiguous to the [Superior] airport” and “30 acres of the Fairview Cemetery Parcel in Pinal County.”
There are environmental issues to consider in this deal, especially concerning water use. These lands also have some intrinsic worth to local Native tribes. There’s a lot of mineral wealth there and copper is in high demand. The last thing we want is to have Republicans negotiating the terms of the deal.
