Saving our History

I found a very interesting article in the New York Times (I'm late reading everything) about plans of the last admin that have been scotched by the present one, THANK GOODNESS, as we thank so many of the changes that have been made lately. This one about the Grand Canyon & surroundings:

Ban Set on Mining Claims Adjacent to Grand Canyon
By FELICITY BARRINGER Published: BY NYTIMES, July 20, 2009

In a modest victory for environmentalists, the Obama administration said Monday that it was designating nearly one million acres of Arizona land near the Grand Canyon off limits to new uranium mining claims for two years.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department was acting “to ensure we are developing our nation’s resources in a way that protects local communities, treasured landscapes and our watersheds.”

Environmental groups like the nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust in Flagstaff, Ariz., have argued that extensive mining operations could contaminate the watershed around the canyon, particularly streams that flow directly into the canyon or into the Colorado River.

Last year the House Natural Resources Committee voted to put the acreage off limits to new mining claims. But the Bush administration disputed the committee’s authority and said it would continue to leave the lands open to new claims.

Mr. Salazar’s decision will not block development of mines whose claims have already been validated.

Some of the 10,600 existing claims within the acreage could thus end up as mining operations if the ore can be profitably extracted. Many of the current claims were filed when the price of uranium soared in 2006 and 2007.

In 2007 the price reached $130 a pound; today uranium is selling for about $50 a pound. From 2005 through 2008, about 3,000 new mining claims were filed in areas near the Grand Canyon.

New mining claims will be barred in three sections of land: one to the north of the canyon, stretching near the Utah border; another bordering a Navajo reservation and Vermilion Cliffs National Monument; and a third south of the canyon in the Kaibab National Forest.

Roger Clark, a land-use expert with the Grand Canyon Trust, called Monday’s decision “a good first step” and said he hoped the moratorium would become permanent. That is the goal of legislation pending in Congress called the Grand Canyon Protection Act.

A House subcommittee hearing on the bill is scheduled on Tuesday.

Mr. Clark also called on the government to take a second look at the environmental reviews that justify existing claims, some of which he said were years out of date.

Ron F. Hochstein, the president of the Denison Mines Corporation, a Canadian company that is about to start three mining operations in the excluded areas, said the decision would have no immediate practical effect on its operations. “We are planning to move forward,” Mr. Hochstein said.

He said the impact of the decision on the mining industry was “more psychological,” reinforcing what he called “an absolutely incorrect impression” of the environmental impact of uranium mining.

Board Approves Drilling Leases

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals board has cleared the way for oil and gas drilling around prehistoric ruins in southern Utah.

Rejecting an appeal filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Interior Board of Land Appeals ruled that the federal Bureau of Land Management had taken appropriate safeguards in granting leases in 2006 for drilling in the Monticello area.

The area is near crumbling cliff houses, eroded pit houses and cave sites with prehistoric storage boxes made of stone slabs.

WE MUST ALL GO TO TEMPLE TOMORROW AND CHURCH ON SUNDAY TO BLESS THE ADMINISTRATION THAT HAS ENOUGH SENSE TO SAVE OUR TREASURES, AND NOT GIVE THEM AWAY TO THE AVARICIOUS, ROTTEN, ALREADY TOO WEALTHY OF OUR COUNTRY. (Also to pray AGAINST the drillers.) WHAT IF MCCAIN HAD WON????? THERE GO THE NATIVE-AMERICAN RUINS...WHO NEEDS THEM? CERTAINLY NOT CINDY.....McC or their whole crew.

And, speaking of avariciousness, has everyone heard the latest on the 'Octomom?' She's (of course) going to be on a reality show on TV, with separate salaries for each of the fourteen kids she has birthed. Lordy -- I almost died having two! No one could have paid me enough to have three or four, let alone FOURTEEN! MADNESS!