Copyright 1999 Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.
Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
February 23, 1999, Tuesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 3995 words
HEADLINE:
TESTIMONY February 23, 1999 RICHARD L. LAWSON HOUSE RESOURCES ENERGY AND MINERAL
RESOURCES MINING ISSUES
BODY:
American Mining, the
Economy, and the Public Lands: Locking Away Our National and Economic Security
Testimony of Richard L. Lawson President National Mining Association
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources
Committee on Resources U.S. House of
Representatives February 23, 1999 Washington, D.C. Chairperson Cubin, members of
the committee, I am Richard L. Lawson, the president of the National Mining
Association. Our members are the enterprises that deliver to public use most of
the basic material resources required to uphold and strengthen America in daily
life - the miners and producers of coal, metals and useful minerals; and the
manufacturers of their equipment, and the suppliers of goods and services. Your
oversight is timely and welcome. Our Nation has the world's largest and most
useful combination of metal ores, minerals, and energy. We rank first or second
in global production of about 20 essential metals, minerals and coal, and high
in many more. We hold significant shares of world reserves. Our presence in
world markets ensures free competition, imparts stability, and deters attempted
cartelization for either economic extortion or political coercion. Most such
resources occur in the West on the federal land that custom calls "public land,"
a term that emerging practices belie. Public land alone contains more resources
in variety and in volume than major groupings of other nations - that is, the
European Union and Japan. This gives us flexibility of policy - economic and
security policy. Yet the administration is locking these resources away from
public use in many ways in many venues - doing so by direct action and by
indirect action. It is doing all things possible to discourage exploration and
to prevent development. Many acts are unauthorized by the law or unjustified by
the facts. The proximity of federal holdings also is being used to quash by
intimidation private activity on private property. This month the administration
put off limits to exploration 670 square miles of so-called public land in
Montana. It is the most recent of almost half a dozen executive or regulatory
confiscations. This month another major metals producer closed its last U.S.
exploration office. Exploration budgets are down 50 percent. No exploration now
means no production in the future. Mining companies must have something to mine.
Arbitrary delays make financing difficult. They must go where they are allowed
to produce minerals. This pattern of action is forcing them overseas and into
volatile regions and volatile countries - to places that have yet to evolve
stable political and economic institutions; that are not necessarily devoted to
the principles of free market economics and trade; and that may harbor or
develop economic and political ambitions. It is forcing future U.S. dependence
for essential resources on these places as well. Some say they don't care if
mining leaves the United States - that it doesn't matter in this new age. They
think that a future can be secured without basic material resources. They think
that if they produce words and ideas in this "information age" then nothing else
is necessary. I know otherwise - that essential remains essential. I know that
when anything threatens to destabilize the world economically or politically,
America's young soldiers, sailors and aircrews will be sent into harm's way to
make it secure. I had to issue such orders as the commander of U.S. Forces in
Europe. You know it too. I care that the United States remains a major mining
nation, and it has nothing to do with my present employment. I care because my
pilot son in the Air Force will be one of the first called upon to secure the
source of something essential, if we withdraw from world markets. I care for him
and for the many thousands of our sons and daughters who will go with him. U.S.
mining is an element of National Security. The policy question is: Do we produce
these resources at home and keep our sons and daughters here? Or do we send the
activity, and our sons and daughters, overseas? To call to mind the role of
mining in America you need do only four things whenever you ride your subway to
or from The Capitol: - Never forget that the rails, the wheels, the cars, the
electric power that turns the wheels that move the cars on the rails, and the
control system that coordinates everything - all of it began in a mine; -
Remember that every American requires almost 47,000 pounds of mined materials a
year - that almost every material thing you use at work or in leisure began in a
mine or required something from a mine to make it, or grow it, or process it; -
Remember that the federal taxes due directly and indirectly to mining typically
equal more than 3 percent of all federal revenue - greater than the sum of the
alcohol, tobacco, and other excise taxes; - And always look up at walls around
the Rayburn boarding platform - look whether coming or going. Recall that on
those walls are representations of history's foremost exponents of wisdom and
law; and that Moses, the lawgiver, has a central place. When Moses gathered the
people to tell them of the Promised Land to come the Scriptures say he spoke of:
"...a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou may dig brass....A
land wherein thou shalt ... not lack anything.... America is such a land. Let us
determine to keep it so. My written testimony will touch on the following: 1 -
Mining in America's Economy: Requirement, Resources and Utility; 2 - The Public
Lands: More Minerals Than Europe, More Riches Than Arabia; 3 - Material
Resources and National Security; 4 - Mining and Community: Good Jobs, Sustaining
Taxes, Good Practices; and 5 - Our Pledge to America's Future: Technology to
Resolve Concerns. In addition, there are attachments of statistical detail on
mining and the revenues of government, on the value of mining products by state
for the 50 states, and on the state-by-state comparison of average wages and
mining wages. 1. Mining in America's Economy: Requirement, Resources and Utility
Standard references say an advanced economy requires at least 75 different
minerals to get the precious and base metals and alloys and inorganic chemicals
that allow it to innovate and keep advancing. America possesses more than 60,
and American mining delivers them. There is no state of the 50 states in which
something is not mined. The references say the quality of a nation's standard of
living and the vigor of its economy can be inferred from the use of mined
resources. Americans require almost 47,000 pounds per person per year. For
electric power alone we each use 20 pounds of coal a day. Most of the world's 6
billion people are closer to 500 pounds a year. They want their share. Be
confident that they mean to have it. Resources controlled by the federal
government will have a critical role in balancing U.S. policy in the future -
critical for the better, or for the worse. Here's what some standard references
say: - America's resources are in the combination of variety and volume the
world's largest concentration of the useful metals and minerals; - Much of our
prosperity is due to their abundance; - They give American workers important
productivity advantages in the world competition; - They are most important to
manufacturing; - Energy from mining is important to manufacturing and the rest
of the economy - especially coal and uranium for electric power; - America
requires more electric power than any other nation; - And so, the component
industries of the mining industry have an importance in the economy
disproportionate to their size. The greatest volume and variety of such
resources are produced in the West and Alaska from what is called public land.
Most reserves and almost all the prospects for new discoveries are on this
so-called public land that the federal government closely controls. America
generally ranks first, second, or third in world production of a large variety
of mineral resources, and among them are: - The metals: copper, gold, silver,
magnesium, molybdenum, lead, beryllium, germanium, and rhenium; - The minerals:
boron, bromine, barite, diatomite, feldspar, gypsum, industrial garnet,
industrial sand and gravel, lithium, mica, phosphate, perlite, salt, sulfur,
soda ash, silicon, talc, and vermiculite. - And the two fuels that together
account for almost 80 percent of America's electric power - coal (57 percent)
and uranium (20 percent). We also deliver an appreciable share of world output
of iron ore, zinc, the platinum-group metals, cadmium, hafnium, selenium,
titanium and titanium oxide. Other minerals include iodine, kaolin and other
clays, pyrophyllite, wollastonite, special bentonite, lime, potash, pumice, and
rare earths. This is wide sample, not an inventory. It would be hard, and maybe
not possible, to list every use for any of the major items mined in the United
States and most of the lesser ones. Ores become metals, and metals with alloys
become tools and capital goods, which become durable goods and services. The
industrial minerals like salt, sulfur, phosphate, potash, and soda ash are
essential to chemical and manufacturing processes. Some go to make both our
computer screens and their glow. Others are critical to the fertilizers that
raise the yield of foodstuffs. The industry's saying is this: If it can't be
grown, it has to be mined. The extension is that if it is grown, the products of
mining are required to fertilize or feed it; to harvest or collect it; to
process it, cool it, or heat it; and to move it to market. Our material
resources are the genesis of much activity and the feedstock of more - the
material and intellectual feedstock of advanced technologies and new kinds of
activity. The table of elements will not change, only the ways in which the
elements are combined for materials. Present-day resources in new combinations
beget improvement of existing products, and new products, and new kinds of
activities. Their ready availability encourages such activity. The newer
technologies and the next technologies depend on everyday resources in new
combinations put to new uses: for example, lasers require silver for mirrors;
and the World Wide Web hangs on connections of copper and gold. One advance
builds on another. And, of course, almost every new thing requires electric
power that is reliable and low in cost, a specialty of coal. The oncoming
technologies that require high-temperature superalloys and superconductors will
require resources from mining - American mining. They, in turn, will contribute
to the more efficient generation and distribution of electric power. Electric
power is the most widely required energy - industrial, commercial, personal. For
context: power rates in the global economy per thousand kilowatthours compare as
follows: Japan - $269 for household power and $185 for i ndustrial power;
Germany - $204 for households and $1 01 for industry; European average - $137
for households and $79 for industries; and the United States - $84 for
households and $47 for industries. Americans and American industry pay less than
half what our primary economic competition pays for power. Fuel largely
determines price. We'll use almost a billion tons of low-cost coal for power
this year, much from public land. Whether it satisfies want or requirement,
luxury or necessity, virtually all human economic activity depends on someone in
a mine taking some useful thing from the earth so that others may make things or
do things with it. 2. Public Lands: More Minerals Than Europe, More Riches Than
Arabia On average the federal government owns one square mile of every two
square miles of the mining West and Alaska. This 815,000 square miles is the
equal in size to: The other leading industrialized nations of the world - Japan,
Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy; plus Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland,
the Netherlands and Belgium with room for several Luxembourgs left over. This
federal sub-continent contains the following: In essential metal and mineral
resources, we estimate it is richer than Europe and Japan, and many supplier
nations on other continents; and in coal alone, a reserve that in energy content
exceeds the combined oil of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. To the point:
Nevada is an important gold state - 80 percent federal ownership; Idaho an
important silver state - 62 percent federal; Arizona an important copper state -
43 percent federal; and Wyoming, the leading state for coal and soda ash -
almost 50 percent federal ownership. Western mines deliver the bulk of: copper,
gold, silver and molybdenum; and of lesser known but very important alloy metals
such as the beryllium and rhenium that are required for National Security
applications. In the minerals Western production delivers either the bulk of or
all of: barite, boron, diatomite, perlite, potash, pumice, rare earths, and soda
ash. Public land in the West holds about half the U.S. coal reserve. The largest
coal-producing mines are in the West. The power plants with the lowest costs of
operations and maintenance are coal-fired and are in the West - about 1 cent a
kilowatt-hour. Some send power from coal mined on public lands across the
mountains to California, where no coal is allowed. Closing the Escalante Canyons
area by executive order confiscated from the public 60 trillion kilowatt-hours
of low-cost electric power - about 20 years' worth at last year's national level
of generation. This 30 billion tons of recoverable coal is the energy equal of
the oil of almost two Iraqs. Utah is 64 percent federal land. This
administration is using both executive orders and regulation to reorganize and
restructure both the societies and the economies of the Western states doing so
across a range of executive agencies in which an excuse can be found to exert a
jurisdictional claim. More is involved than mining; but mining is a major
target, directly and indirectly. More than 70 proposed regulations or sets of
regulation are pending that touch on mining. In many cases the action proposed
exceeds the authority granted by Congress, and in some cases moves forward
without authority. Some lack scientific underpinning and others are contrary to
scientific advice. Many are based on undemonstrated and undemonstrable need. It
is as if much of the executive branch has joined to make good the promise of the
Secretary of the Interior - a policy declared when Congress rejected his
constrictive and punitive revision of the mining law. He promised"to explore the
full range of the regulatory authority we now possess" to enact the provisions
denied by Congress. In ways Congress neither considered nor intended these acts
have a singular and collective intent: not to correct a flaw but to curtail the
act of mining. In view of these most recent acts the range of authority presumed
by administration officialdom appears to be virtually unlimited. Last summer the
Secretary told the New York Times: "...the real action now is on landscapes and
watersheds ... the offensive game, and all the fun, is outside of Congress."
Here's how things stand in the "offensive game" across the agencies: -
Substantial public land in the West has been closed off or proposed for closing;
- There is reason to believe the drive to introduce endangered species in
certain areas is a means of further expanding the "full range of regulatory
authority" along with that of the species; - There are initiatives to extend the
authority to proscribe by regulation deep into the country's most extensive
river systems - the Columbia, affecting much of the mining West, and the
Mississippi, covering the rest of the country; - Regulatory enactment is pending
of the punitive federal mining regime that Congress rejected - rules to override
state regulation in the West; - The environmental impact process takes almost 5
years, if there are no problems or interventions; - In one instance exploration
was forbidden in a Midwest national forest that has been open by long practice,
regulation and law; - And proximity to national parks, forests, or wildlife
refugees has been used in at least three instances to coerce cancellation or
withdrawal of private projects on private land - the threat of extended and
expensive regulatory battles on permits. The federal government owns one square
mile of every four square miles of land in the United States: 880,000 square
miles of 3.5 million: almost 25 percent of the Nation and growing: more 500
national forests, parks, monuments, recreation areas, historic parks, sea and
lakeshores, reserves and preserves, and so on, down to quarter-acre historic
sites. There is no state in which the federal government does not own something.
Every acre is part of some watershed or ecosystem. The government has begun to
use these holdings as justification to control much more by reach of regulation.
3. Material Resources and National Security The world is generally at peace now,
but it is never at rest. Someone always is watching and probing for an
opportunity or weakness to exploit. There are many who would humble the United
States, if they but had means and chance. Not all weapons are military. They
also can be economic. National Security and preparedness are terms often applied
to defense alone, but both have a second component - industrial capacity.
Industrial capacity is to the projection of military power what muscle is to
strength. To be secure the Nation must have the means of flexibility and freedom
of action in all events. Preparedness requires a military establishment capable
of supporting the foreign policies pursued and an economy able to support both
the objectives of government and the aspirations of the people. Security seldom
requires more; but it never accepts anything less. Among the nations of the
world, declines in relative economic standing generally cause reactions:
influence declines; there is maneuver in the hierarchy of nations; and the
shifting throws more pressure on foreign policy and the military establishment.
At home the people grow restive when the objectives of government and their
personal aspirations are more than a short time in conflict. When nations study
other nations in contemplation of policy there is no method of assessment or
examination that does not consider economic structure, especially natural
resources. The ongoing instabilities of the Persian Gulf and their connection to
imported oil are but one example. Mining is critical to America's future
security. Silver, zinc, titanium, and platinum are designated strategic and
critical. Copper, gold, iron ore, lead, molybdenum, phosphate, sulfur and potash
are considered essential to the U.S. and world economies. We produce the major
share of the world's molybdenum, all in the West, and of phosphate and sulfur.
Access to federal lands will be required to continue operations in the decades
to come - to uphold the public good. Mining also upholds American security with
efficiency and ever- improving technology. Technology is why we are a major
supplier of copper, gold, and iron ore; it allows production from ores of a low
metal content - ores that not long ago would not have been worth mining. Our
technology extends and expands the reserve base of resources for the U.S. and
the world. Better exploration and better production are important in a world of
expanding requirements. When the President locked away 20 years worth of
low-cost electric power, he said, "Mining is important ... but we can't have
mines everywhere." When the Secretary of the Interior threatened an extensive
and expensive regulatory fight to block a titanium mine on private property, he
dismissed the product with the comment, "Titanium is a common mineral." Titanium
in one form is used to whiten the filling of Oreo cookies and in another to
impart high strength to airframes and jet engines. Titanium is a strategic
commodity, and versatile too. One standard reference estimates that 90 percent
of the metallic wealth ever produced in America came from mines whose combined
surface would cover an area not much larger than 30 miles by 30 miles. The
President and the Secretary seem bent on removing public lands from public use
and purposes that serve the public. The result puts our National Security and
our economic future at risk. Two questions must be asked and answered without
quibble or qualification. Do we produce here the essential material resources we
have in plenty, and keep our sons and daughters at home? Or do we concede supply
and participation in world markets to others, and send our sons and daughters
into harms way to keep them secure? 4. Minina and Community: Good Jobs,
Sustaining Taxes, Good Practices Both statistics and performance show mining is
a strong, positive force in a community. Miners' pay is 66 percent more than
other industrial workers-an average $50,000 for miners to $30,000 for all
others. Our baseline study shows that mining, and the economic activities
associated with it, and the activities supported by it, typically cumulate
directly and indirectly in the American economy as follows: $27 billion a year
in revenue for local and state government; $57 billion in federal revenue, more
than the excise taxes; $144 billion in personal income; $296 billion in
mining-dependent business income; and a total $524 billion impact on the U.S.
economy; and 5 million dependent jobs. U.S. mining leads the world in developing
good practices - in production, in health and safety, in environmental
remediation. When the industries of other nations want to improve, they come
here to see how we do it. U.S. mining sets the world standard in reclamation and
restoration. Mining is a temporary use of the land. Coal mine reclamation has
returned to other productive uses a land area approximately equal in size to the
State of Rhode Island. The states require reclamation of other forms of mining.
When other nations want to improve, they come here to see how we do it. 5. Our
Pledge to America's Future: Technology to Resolve Concerns America's mining
industry is pledged to keep getting better - is an enthusiastic partner in the
Industries of the Future program. The program is designed to bring to bear the
intellectual power of the national laboratories, and other resources, on
developing the technologies for the United States mining industry we will create
in the 21st century. Our goal is to identify, develop, and deploy technology
according to our vision of the future. Our vision is of an America secure in its
resources - low cost resources. Our vision of the future includes: - Advanced
production - minimum ground and community disturbance, lower energy consumption,
improvements in miner safety and health; - Advanced reclamation and remediation
with an emphasis on cleaner and more efficient production; - Greater utility of
products and recycling where possible; - Lower cost products in support of
America's competitive participation in the global economy and an ever-improving
standard of living. In coal we are additionally committed to Vision 21 of the
Department of Energy. We are aiming at 60 percent generating efficiency with
coal by 2010 and near-zero emissions by 2035. We foresee complexes based on coal
and high efficiency technology that deliver to public use at low cost an array
of goods: electric power; natural gas; other fuels; fuel additives; chemical
products; and the means of greater resource recovery from existing oil and gas
fields. Some try to argue for the sake of politics that mining is the industry
of an age gone by. But the standard references point out that one may judge the
utility of a resource or an industry by the number of useful products that flow
from it. We say mining is tomorrow, not yesterday. We say mining is the
foundation for America's future.
LOAD-DATE: March 8,
1999 
