Court upholds Obama-era ban on new Grand Canyon uranium mines
A powerful court ruled on Tuesday that an Obama-era ban on new uranium mines around the Grand Canyon should stay in place, though celebration on the environment side was tempered by expectations the government itself will now side with mining interests to end the ban. A separate, but linked, ruling on an older mine was a defeat for a Native American tribe.
The mining industry and a coalition of Republicans in Arizona and Utah had hoped for court support to tear down an order from the Obama administration in 2012 that protected a million acres of land around the Grand Canyon from mining development for 20 years. But they lost in the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The court ruling effectively confirmed that the ban is lawful and the government has the power to impose it. But the government is now represented by Donald Trump and, in the case of mining, interior secretary Ryan Zinke, who are mining enthusiasts.
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A second decision issued by the ninth circuit on Tuesday, in a related case, was a direct defeat for the Havasupai Native Americans, who have been fighting for many years against a part-finished uranium mine they say is a safety threat and a violation of sacred ancestral land.
The court rejected the tribe’s appeal against Canyon Mine, belonging to the mining company Energy Fuels Resources, which is being sunk on National Forest land five miles south of the rim of the Grand Canyon. The mine avoids the Salazar ban because it’s based on a historic claim and is a revival of a dormant site.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/12/grand-canyon-uranium-mines-ban-upheld-court-trump
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