they certainly have been on a roll the last few days....

[Guest guest]

The Bush administration announced yet another environmental rollback

on Friday, following a pattern of releasing such news right before a

holiday weekend, presumably in hopes that it will slip past the

public's notice. This time the beneficiaries are mining companies,

which, thanks to a reinterpretation of the 1872 Mining Law, will now

be able to use as much public land as they want to develop operations

for mining gold, silver, and other minerals. The 131-year-old mining

act, long criticized as outdated by the environmental community,

already allows mining companies to extract minerals from public lands

without paying any royalties to taxpayers. Steve D'Esposito of the

Mineral Policy Center, an environmental group, called the Bush

decision an "open invitation to dump massive quantities of toxic

mining waste on unlimited amounts of our public lands. It puts clean

water and community health at increased risk."

 

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Elizabeth Shogren, 11 Oct 2003

<http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=1603