FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 7, 2022
DENVER—The Interior Department today announced more than $700 million in funding to clean up abandoned mines in 22 states and the Navajo Nation. The funds were included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed last year, and will create jobs closing open mine shafts and treating toxic drainage. Today’s announcement follows last week’s announcement of more than $1 billion to cap abandoned oil and gas wells across the country.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:
“Thank you, President Biden, for moving quickly to clean up the messes left behind by a century of irresponsible mining and drilling. This cleanup is long overdue, and the funds from the infrastructure law are a major investment that will create good-paying jobs while starting to tackle the toxic legacy that drilling and mining companies have left across America.
“At the same time, the cleanup money does nothing to address the underlying problem that created these messes in the first place. Even today, oil companies are fighting bills that would require them to post bonds sufficient to cover the cost of cleaning up after themselves when boom times inevitably go bust. Foreign mining companies are trying to leave new toxic legacies on America’s public lands from the Boundary Waters to the Grand Canyon.
“It’s imperative that Congress and the Biden administration enact comprehensive reforms to fix century-old laws like the Mineral Leasing Act of 1921 and the Hardrock Mining Law of 1872. Without permanent fixes, we’re leaving a rigged system in place and ensuring new environmental disasters for our grandkids to clean up a century from now.”