Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, my amendment would require us to know what we are doing before we take the overwhelming radical step of withdrawing more than a million acres of federal lands from mineral development. It may come as a shock but even today we know little about the geologic mineral makeup of our lands. Minerals that were very important in the past like gold and silver are not always the key to our future technologies. Today, we are finding a whole new suite of minerals that are critically important to our future, while rare earths and lithium are the stars, important minerals like cobalt, manganese and copper are quickly becoming equally both important and challenging to find and produce. However, this bill in front of us has no recognition of the importance of the breadth of minerals that may be included in the areas covered by this legislation. Which is why my amendment is so important today. This amendment will require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a full mineral resource survey of the withdrawal areas prior to enacting this withdrawal.…”