EARTHblog

I'm not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan, class-warfare or the war on Christmas - I'm talking about a mine site in Wisconsin.

At the beginning of the year Al Gedicks of the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council wrote a guest blog post which mentioned that Wisconsinites had "mobilized public opinion against Gogebic Taconite’s (GTac) proposal for a giant open pit iron mine." Then in June, 15 protesters headed over to the site for a demonstration that didn't get out of hand, but Gogebic felt differently.

Last month I visited Wisconsin’s booming silica sand mining region and saw sandstone bluffs strip-mined for sturdy quartz sand that’s essential for the horizontal hydraulic fracturing process used to extract oil and gas from underground shale formations. I saw how residents there had little protection against silica dust exposure since Wisconsin has no regulatory standards for this relatively new mining industry. (Read my earlier column about it here.)

After Wisconsin, I headed across the Mississippi River to the southeastern corner of Minnesota. The industry is pretty active here too, with several mines and loading facilities and many more proposed, but so is the citizenry, which has been pushing the state to regulate frac sand mines and processing facilities.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010. Section 1504 of that law required the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to issue rules compelling companies that extract oil, natural gas, or minerals to publish payments they make to governments. The purpose here was to lift what is known as the “resource curse”- where some of the most mineral rich nations suffer with some of the poorest populations. The solution: shine the light of transparency on nations led by regimes where mineral riches go to only multinational corporations and corrupt government officials who exploit their indigenous populations.

In 2010, in response to unspeakable atrocities from the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congress did a powerful thing: It passed Section 1502 of the Dodds Frank Act,which requires companies to investigate and disclose whether they source minerals from this region for their products, and whether this sourcing contributed funds to armed groups.

It was right down to the wire. On June 27th, the Interior Department approved an extension for the mineral withdrawal along the Wild and Scenic Illinois River in Oregon.  The existing withdrawal, which was set to expire on June 30th, has now been replaced with a new withdrawal that will protect the river from mining for the next 20 years.

We're thrilled about the withdrawal and the protection it affords this wild and beautiful river, but it does highlight the need for meaningful reform of the 1872 Mining Law, which prioritizes mining over all other land uses.

On Tuesday, the same day President Obama delivered his Climate Action Plan speech at Georgetown University, the Maryland Departments of the Environment and Natural Resources (MDE/DNR) released their Best Management Practices report for the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative. The comment period extends until August 9. MDE/DNR will host a public meeting July 9 at 7pm in the auditorium of Garrett College. One danger posed by drilling are the externalities the oil and gas industry generates. Externalities involve costs that businesses shift to others not involved in that business- making them external to the businesses’ own operations. Pollution, road construction and maintenance, fire, police, public safety, and public health costs borne by taxpayers exemplify these kinds of externalities. They will overwhelm the economic and environmental abilities of the State to support this heavy industrial activity.