George Miller: “later today, unfortunately, the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, is going to have to participate in the biggest…”

“later today, unfortunately, the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, is going to have to participate in the biggest giveaway of American resources in the history of this country. Because of the 1872 mining law that this Congress has refused to reform since that time, over the last 120 years, the Secretary of the Interior is going to have to comply with that law and transfer to the American Barrick Mining Co, a Canadian-owned mining company, 10 billion dollars' worth of gold to be mined in the coming years, and the Secretary will receive on behalf of the taxpayers and the citizens of this country $9,000, and that will be it. There will be no royalties, there will be no benefits to the American citizens or to the American taxpayers who own those public lands under which this gold resides, because of the 1872 Mining Act. This has been a long legacy of resource development in the United States, a long legacy of where those who were powerful and those who were privileged have been able to take water and gain water subsidies, those who have gotten below-cost sales of our timber and decimated our forests and clearcut our forests and exported logs overseas while paying very little to the taxpayers for the privilege of being able to use those lands to realize a profit and in many instances so decimating those lands that they have yet to return to productivity and leaving the taxpayer stuck with the cost.”