AUGUSTA, Maine — A proposed bill to change the state’s mining laws received initial approval in the House on Thursday evening.
Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, said that the vote was 80-65 in favor of LD 1853, An Act To Improve Environmental Oversight and Streamline Permitting for Mining in Maine. The bill was expected to go before the Senate for an initial vote later in the evening.
Martin submitted the bill in early March, saying he was prompted to introduce it because of the increasing price of minerals and the potential for mining gold, silver, copper and zinc on Bald Mountain in Aroostook County.
Bald Mountain is northwest of Ashland and Portage in Martin’s House district. J.D. Irving owns the land with Prentiss & Carlisle.
Under the bill, the state Department of Environmental Protection would be in charge of permitting and regulating such operations. The required rulemaking by the DEP likely would not begin until at least January 2014.
Martin said reports indicate that mining development at Bald Mountain could directly create up to 300 jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs. There also would be an excise tax on the minerals there, so the result would be more than $600 million in employment income and more than $120 million in state and local taxes, he said.
Environmental and conservation groups maintained their stance that lakes, streams and groundwater could be poisoned near Bald Mountain if there is not adequate public scrutiny or debate.
The bill will still require additional votes in each chamber for passage.
Destroy the enviroment?? At Martin control …
No one cares about the environment until it’s too late. Kill the trees, kill the land, think short term because the words “job creation” are involved. Nevermind the fact that there are no contingencies that those jobs go to Mainers and not Canadians, and nevermind that those jobs won’t be stable. Just destroy as much as possible and let future generations worry about the consequences.
Neither John nor I will be around to suffer the consequences. But, rest assured someone will make money with this in the short term.
It’s a take, take, take world. No one thinks far enough ahead until it’s to late. Wonder if they even considered any of the clean up costs or long term costs associated with something like this. No biggie, they only need to worry about themselves and let the next generation deal with the problems. We only borrow the world from our children.
Special interest legislation this time from a democrat. It’s wrong when republicans do it and it is equally wrong when democrats do it.
Thus is just another empty county dream. I think the Aroostook gold rush will be more like a turtle race. At least the state isn’t paying for it like in Millinocket.
Let’s see. There’s another article today about how we all got screwed by the wind power law a few years ago. Now here’s a bill designed to basically deregulate strip mining. Am I the only one who notices a similarity here?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/picheroklahoma/
http://schehrer2.homestead.com/
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-smoldering-ruins-of-centralia/
http://schehrer2.homestead.com/Cardin-s-end-1.html
This is what “prosperity looks like after the mines are gone.