House Passes Mining Deregulation Bill

According to an Associated Press story reported here and elsewhere on the Web, House Republicans have "pushed through" a bill, H.R.4402, that would:

...give the federal government discretion to eliminate its environmental reviews of mining projects and accept state reviews instead. It would curtail the time for environmental reviews by limiting the review period to 30 months unless mining companies and the government agreed to an extension.

It would also set a 60-day time limit to file a legal challenge to a mining project, limit injunctions to what is necessary to correct legal requirements and prohibit payment of attorneys' fees, expenses and other costs billed to taxpayers.

The AP article goes on to state that the measure will likely fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.  Whether that is the case may depend in good part on the actions of the mining community in support of this legislation.

For those interested, the status of H.R.4402 may be monitored by using the search box here, and the text read here.