Arizona GOP leader wants Trump administration to remove uranium mining restrictions
Arizona's Republican Senate president is hoping the Trump administration will undo actions by former presidents that curtail uranium mining in the state.
The front entrance at the Energy Fuels Inc. uranium Pinyon Plain Mine is shown on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, near Tusayan, Arizona. (AP File Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP File Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
PHOENIX – Arizona’s Republican Senate president is hoping the Trump administration will undo actions by former presidents that curtail uranium mining in the state.
Last week, state Sen. Warren Petersen requested a meeting with U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to discuss reversing federal actions taken while Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in the White House.
Specifically, Petersen wants to do away with an Obama-era ban on uranium mining on public land and a national monument created by Biden on nearly 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.
Why does GOP lawmaker want uranium mining in Arizona?
According to Petersen, scientists believe more than 300 million pounds of uranium is buried where mining is prohibited in Arizona.
“The energy that could be produced from this mineral is astronomical,” Petersen said in a press release Monday. “Unfortunately, the Biden administration has forced dirty uranium production overseas where there are no environmental standards, instead of here in the United States where we have the highest environmental standards in the world.”
Petersen has been opposing the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument since Biden created it in August 2023.
In February 2024, Petersen and other GOP leaders filed a lawsuit arguing that it was outside of Biden’s authority.
Now that Donald Trump is in the White House, Petersen is appealing to the executive branch to open Arizona to uranium mining. He laid out his case in a letter to Burgum on Friday.
“Productively and responsibly using Arizona’s resources will protect America’s national security, create jobs, lower costs, grow the economy and remove unnecessary federal control over Arizona,” Petersen wrote. “I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how we can work together to reverse this Arizona land grab and unleash American energy.”
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Comments
10 Comments
Where do the state Republicans stand on taxing this mineral wealth? A continued zero percent severance tax for the mining companies?
Normal states have about a 5% severance tax for mining and mineral processing.
Nevada, the only state that produces more mining wealth than Arizona collects a billion dollars per year from theirs.
Wyoming has a 4% severance tax on Uranium.
Unfortunately, trump is in the process of removing all the environmental standards. Why do these people hate the earth and have so much disregard for the native people ?
What benefit do the tax payers get for digging out this public resource?