Or we could have just auctioned off those four square miles of public land. Of course, with Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton colluding rather than competing, we might not have seen anything even remotely resembling fair value that way, either.
Not all is lost, however, or at least not yet. Reading through this 10-page travesty, I saw that there are three things that have to happen before Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton finally get away with this legislative larceny:
(1) The land happens to be an old Native American burial ground. Before things proceed, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Resolution Copper have to find "mutually acceptable measures to address the concerns of the affected Indian tribes." Maybe they won't.(2) The Secretary of Agriculture has to prepare an environmental impact statement "which shall be used as the basis for all decisions under Federal law related to the proposed mine." Maybe the project won't pass environmental muster.
(3) There's a last resort if the deal isn't blocked. As noted above, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Resolution Copper, together, have to hire an appraiser who will appraise the value of the federal land, and if the land being given away is worth more than the land being received (which it certainly should be, because the land being received is copper-less), then Resolution Copper should pay the full difference, with the value of the mineral rights taken into account.
Note to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: I am begging you to make sure that the appraisal of that Tonto National Forest property fully reflects the copper in it, and I won't be happy unless I see a figure in the tens of billions of dollars. Just this once, let's stop this scheme to steal this valuable resource Of the People, By the People and For the People away from us.
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