BLM disses Congress, AZ on Grand Canyon mining

Bush Interior Sec. Dirk Kempthorne has dragged Interior and BLM to new lows.

WASHINGTON -- The shameful Bush-Cheney US Bureau of Land Management is trying to end the authority of Congress to challenge mining on public lands when “an emergency situation exists and extraordinary measures must be taken to preserve values that would otherwise be lost.”

Congress recently used this authority for only the 6th time in 32 years, in response to broad public opposition to BLM and Forest Service moves to allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and Colorado River in Arizona.

Congress and the Obama-Biden administration should not allow this abuse of power to stand.