FEINGOLD WORKS TO REFORM OUTDATED MINING LAW Bipartisan Group Supports Measure, Which Strengthens Fiscal Responsibility and Environmental Stewardship April 23, 2008 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) is leading a bipartisan effort to reform outdated mining legislation by calling for a royalty on mining on public lands. Feingold and Senators John Sununu (R-NH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Judd Gregg (R-NH) along with six other senators wrote to the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee to voice their support for a strong royalty as a matter of fiscal responsibility and environmental stewardship. For 136 years, under the General Mining Law of 1872, valuable minerals have been mined on federal lands by private interests for free. By comparison, other extractive industries like oil or coal pay a royalty when operating on public lands. A royalty will encourage responsible use of public lands, promote fair compensation to taxpayers, and help protect some of our nation’s valuable environmental treasures. “Our country’s mining laws have not even been brought into the 20th century, let alone the 21st,” Feingold said. “These antiquated laws are skewed in favor of mining interests at the expense of U.S. taxpayers and the environment. Congress desperately needs to update our mining laws, which have gone unchanged for over 130 years and pose a great risk to our public lands.” Feingold has been a long-time supporter of updating the antiquated General Mining Law of 1872. In a separate letter last month, Feingold joined 15 other senators to ask the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to support other mining reforms that balance the needs of the mining industry and the care of public lands. The letter calls for mining to be balanced with other valued land uses, rather than current law, which allows mining to trump all other land uses like recreation, watershed protection, hunting, and fishing. In November 2007, Feingold and Cantwell introduced the Elimination of Double Subsidies for Hardrock Mining Industry Act of 2007 to end the “percentage depletion allowance,” which gives mining companies what is tantamount to a double subsidy on public lands. “Congress should update our antiquated mining laws by implementing royalty reforms and passing my legislation to eliminate the double subsidies mining companies receive on public lands,” Feingold said. “Both royalty reform and elimination of the depletion allowance would provide the necessary funds to clean up the half a million abandoned mines that are harming the environment.” A copy of the letter is available at http://feingold.senate.gov/pdf/ltr_miningreform_042308.pdf.

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