Mining’s growth splitting parties
WASHINGTON — With the United States dependent on China’s mining sector to produce electric vehicles and other technology, Republicans and Democrats alike have found a rare moment of bipartisan agreement around expanding the nation’s production of critical minerals such as lithium and copper.
But how to go about expanding the nation’s mining sector has set off a debate within Congress, as Republicans push to reduce U.S. environmental regulations they say are stifling mining here.
At a series of hearings by the House Natural Resources Committee last week, Democrats and Republicans clashed over a federal permitting system that mining companies say takes between seven and 10 years, driving the industry overseas despite large U.S. deposits of lithium and copper — minerals needed for batteries and other clean energy technology.
“If you look at where these critical minerals are being supplied from, we should be embarrassed we’re far down the list, when you consider the deposits we’re blessed with here,” said Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., the committee chair.
Democrats have made available billions of dollars in loans and funding to expand domestic mining under the Inflation Reduction Act, the sprawling clean energy bill President Joe Biden signed into law last year.
But many within the party have resisted efforts by Republicans and mining companies to limit how much time federal agencies have to review a project,
“The idea that if we just gutted our environmental laws we just could open up all these mines and solve this problem is false,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. “The future of our country and communities depends on bipartisan action on this issue.”
House Democrats are looking to overhaul the country’s 150year-old mining system, which operates little differently from when it was established in 1872.
They want to replace the existing claim system, under which companies are legally entitled to develop any minerals they discover — presuming they can get the necessary permits from state and federal agencies — with a leasing system where the government auctions off the right to mine a specific piece of land, as it does with oil and natural gas deposits, and requires mining companies to pay a royalty.
“This question is not going to be solved by talking about permitting reform,” said Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., ranking member
on the committee.
Mining companies have so far resisted that effort, and past attempts to pass legislation overhauling the mining system never got a vote on the House floor.
Michael Moats, an engineering professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, said that while such a system might be preferred, it would do little to expedite the slow permitting times for U.S. mining projects, which he said far exceeded reviews in Canada and Australia.
“Our plants, our mines have declined, and the companies are trying,” he said. “The problem is (projects here) are just not economic because countries aren’t playing on the same playing field we are.”
The length of federal permitting reviews has already gotten the attention of the White House, with President Joe Biden endorsing reform legislation written by Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., last year that ultimately failed to win support in the Senate.
Those efforts have faced pushback from progressive Democrats and environmentalists who worry that a reduction in regulation would result in a return to the mining booms of the 1800s that left many parts of the American West badly polluted.
Instead, they want to see the United States develop a recycling system for minerals such as lithium and copper.
“Domestic mines will source some of the critical minerals, but with the right policies in place we can create a more cir-*
cular economy,” said Aaron Mintzes, senior policy counsel at the activist group Earthworks. “As the market matures for recycling these materials, the pressure to develop new mines declines.”
But with analysts projecting a massive increase in demand for lithium, cobalt and other minerals in the years to come, experts say many more mines will need to developed.
For instance, copper demand is likely to double over the next decade, according to a study last year by S&P Global.
Mining operations have improved significantly over the past century, with companies now employing numerous technologies to stop the toxic chemicals used in mining from leaching into surrounding waterways, Moats said.
But mining still requires digging out open pit mines that run up to 5 miles in length, and while U.S. law requires companies to fill in old mines and replace topsoil and trees, there is only so much they can do.
“The land is scarred,” Moats said. “There’s no easy answers to this.”