Environmental Extremism Metastasizes

A Greek mining project worth about a billion dollars in exports to Greece, equaling 2% of their total exports, is being delayed. Joining forces with the environmentalists is the Greek Communist Party.

“Blood will flow if this continues,” stated one opponent.  In addition to Greece mining projects have been stopped or inhibited by environmentalists in Portugal, Spain and Cyprus. Does all this have a relationship to their economic plights or is it just some inexplicable coincidence?

The Bristol Bay/Pebble Bay project in Alaska could create 15,000 American jobs and contribute over $2.4 billion to GDP annually. To prevent this the EPA has adopted a new and unprecedented approach. They rejected the project based on their own biased, in house model before the project developers could even submit their proposal which contained newer and more detailed information costing them over $150 million dollars. The environmental opposition’s rhetoric bears an uncanny resemblance to the local Newman Ridge opponents. The potential of the local Sutter Gold property, only 4.6 % of Amador County’s share of the Mother Lode, is about $1.5 billion at current gold prices. And that’s with 90% of their small property unexplored.

We are lucky to have mining potential here since the timber industry has been destroyed.  Other timber counties are not so lucky. Josephine County in Oregon is now considering having just one Sheriff’s patrol for its 83,000 residents. Curry County, also in Oregon, is facing a state takeover. Liberal Democrat Governor John Kitzhaber, who sat in Michelle Obama’s box at the 2013 State of the Union address, proposed an increase in property taxes for these two distressed counties. After the voters rejected that he proposed a local income tax and threatened the residents with National Guard troops or state police to replace the depleted locally controlled law enforcement.  The logic of fighting poverty by increasing poverty escapes me.

Is there any lesson here for Amador County?  While we are well governed fiscally, and are near major cities that send us tourists unlike the Oregon counties discussed, the situation grows worse each year.

Yet an elitist well financed and manipulative minority has undue influence here and throughout the foothills. They call themselves environmentalists; I call them the pro poverty lobby. How long are we going to put up with this?

Copyright 2013, Mark L. Bennett