Be afraid of trump, be very afraid!!
Massive copper mine tests Trump's push to slash regulation
Published on Mon, 17 Jul 2017
Reuters reported that Rio Tinto's proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would tunnel 7,000 feet underground, where rocks radiate heat from the earth's molten core. It would suck up enough water to supply a city and leave a crater a mile and a half wide and 1,000 feet deep.
Planned for more than a decade, the project would be a prototype for a looming era of more invasive US mines as companies run out of easy-to-reach deposits, geologists say. It is also the project President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, had in mind as he began crafting a "hit list" of regulations that should be killed to speed industrial permitting.
Ms Ross told Reuters in a May 9 interview that "A company shouldn't have to be hundreds of millions of dollars into risk money without knowing whether there is a real chance it is going to get approved.”
The massive project which would be among the world's largest copper mines underscores the dangers of weakening America's rigorous permitting process at a time mining endeavors are becoming increasingly complex and environmentally risky. And Ross's citation of Resolution as a poster child for suffocating regulation reflects how far the Trump administration is willing to go to advance economic growth.
Sorting out the mine's potentially negative impacts is anything but simple, and many local residents, along with Native American and environmental groups, say Resolution is exactly the kind of development that cries out for intense public scrutiny no matter how long it takes.
Mila Besich-Lira, the mayor of Superior, the town closest to the project said that "The companies have to mitigate their risks mitigate what people are losing.”
A federal government review of the project has drawn about 130,000 comments from concerned constituents more than 10 times the number who gave input on the smaller Rosemont Copper Mine nearby.
The Resolution mine would also give the region a big economic boost, employing 1,400 people and injecting $20 billion into public coffers, Rio Tinto estimates. It could supply the United States with a quarter of its copper, putting this small town at the epicenter of the global metals market.
Trump has vowed to sweep away regulations he says cost America trillions of dollars with no public benefit.
The regulatory review by Ross, due for release as soon as this month, is one of several parallel efforts to slash red tape. Trump has also started dismantling Obama-era climate change regulations through executive orders, for example, and directed agencies to kill two rules for every one they create.
In the meantime, Congress could set the tone. A Republican bill introduced early this year and supported by Rio Tinto would set a two and a half year deadline on mine permitting, a standard similar to that seen in Australia and Canada.
Source : Reuters