Contradictions in American resource policy
At the Dappled Planet, we are fascinated by the contradictions being played out in the US right now. All eyes are clearly on preventing a ‘meltdown’ of the financial system as we know it, but what has caught our attention today was a obscure reference to a new bill somewhat quietly (to the vast majority of people) working its way through the American political system.
Known as the “Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007 (HR2262), it basically aims to make sure that mining companies are held accountable to the highest environmental standards ever conceived – and also ensure that 1000s of lawyers have their jobs permanently guaranteed for life by allowing anyone to sue companies to block development and production.
Now, there is nothing wrong with holding Mining companies accountable for ensuring that development does not contaminate the area distant from any mines nor to ensure that the areas are rehabilitiated to something close to – or better – than what the area was originally. Most companies grudgingly like to adhere to that – even if some are more willing to push limits. And sometimes accidents happen.
But what fascinates us is the short sighted vision of the American government here. This is a country which was nearly bought to its knees in the middle of this year by soaring commodity prices, particularly in oil. How the people howled, how patriotic they all became about wanting to be free of the dependance on foreign oil! And then minority environmental groups set about making sure all alternative forms of energy development in the US were being blocked, usually on the basis of “We want this solar farm/geothermal power station/hydro power plant/wind farm/nuclear power plant etc built – but not in my backyard.”
And now, they are quietly going about ensuring that not only are the tiny supplies of fossil fuel they have left are to be preserved indefinetely in the ground, but also all the other rich treasueres they have. Which all increases their dependence on foreign commodities.
If this leads to greater innovations in recycling, then its all a good thing – mining the world’s resources is with every scoop of dirt, pushing the world towards one where we won’t have access to the metals which make our life in the developed and developing human worlds so easy. In other words, minining is not in the slightest bit sustainable. But we are by no means anywhere near that utopia – and even the machines needed to assist with making our society a closed recycling loop will need to be built with something a little stronger than wood (like steel maybe?).
So at a time when the US is setting themselves up to have a very weak dollar which will make the prices of everything even more painfully expensive for the poor battered ‘consumer’ (Read: common American), why are they setting themselves up at the same time to be unable to use the resources of their country – both renewable and non-renewable? What will it take to break this strangle hold the special interest have on the American government? How long before the people of the US finally start having to educate themselves in the ‘brainy’ concepts of science so they can make the right decisions instead of letting a few with unhelpful agenda’s skew the ability of the US to really put itself on a path to prosperity -and sound environmental and resource management???
And most importantly, how long before the financial community returns to the raw fact – you need time to develop these alternatives and by driving the world into these ever shorter and extreme cycles of industry growth and devastation, you are not allowing the world to actually develop the solutions we seek? Finding and developing resources takes 5-10 years. Building new energy plants of any description takes upwards of 10 years or more if new technology is being implemented. You cannot continue to starve companies of funding for the short term goal of making a profit in 6 hours or 6 months when these visions can only be played out over years due to the limit of people qualified and able to develop the ideas in the first place.
