By Kerry Shapiro and Dan Quinley On September 9, 2021, the House Environmental and Natural Resources (“ENR”) Committee finished its mark-up of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation budget measure. Inserted at the very end of the 117-page mark-up is Section 70807: Hardrock Mining, which is a quiet attempt to reform the…
On December 9, 2020, the California Energy Commission (CEC) appointed nine members of the new Blue Ribbon Commission on Lithium Extraction in California (Lithium Valley Commission). The appointments were made pursuant to Assembly Bill 1657 (Garcia, Chapter 271, 2020) (AB 1657), which was signed into law by Governor Newsom on…
By Kerry Shapiro Last week, President Trump signed an executive order with potentially wide-ranging implications for the mining industry and many other affected stakeholders. The order directs the Department of the Interior (DOI) to review national monuments, particularly those larger than 100,000 acres, that were designated since January 1, 1996,…
BLM releases maps showing 1.3 million acres of proposed mining withdrawal On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) released maps showing the areas that BLM, on December 28, 2016, proposed to withdraw from mining. The withdrawal is designed to “protect nationally significant landscapes with outstanding cultural,…
California Mining Update AB 1142 and SB 209: What operators need to know about SMARA modernization Changes will be effective January 1, 2017 by Kerry Shapiro This article was first published in The Conveyor magazine, a publication of CalCIMA. On April 18, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two…
California Mining Update AB 1142 and SB 209: What lead agencies need to know about SMARA Modernization Changes will be effective January 1, 2017 by Kerry Shapiro On April 18, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law two bills that together provide the most significant update to the California…
by Kerry Shapiro This article was first published in The Conveyor, a publication of the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association. Mining companies are subject to myriad requirements under the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA) and implementing regulations that can trip up even the most diligent of operators from…
by Kerry Shapiro, Esq. The recent submittal of significant proposed revisions to California’s mining law, the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (“SMARA”), signals potentially broad-reaching changes to the statute. On February 21, 2014, Senator Fran Pavely (D) introduced SB 1270, a bill proposing to overhaul various sections of SMARA. SB…
by Kerry Shapiro As reported earlier this week, the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Center for Biological Diversity v. Salazar allowed a uranium mine on federal lands in Arizona to re-open after being idled for seventeen years absent any new federal approval or supplemental environmental review. This…
Kerry Shapiro This three-part blog series on California SB 108, a bill which changes provisions in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) pertaining to “idle” mines, is based on a paper I first presented at the CalCIMA Conference in October 2011. If you have not yet read…