The Obama administration is set to announce on Monday that it will block new uranium mining on one million acres in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon, lobbyists and Interior Department employees who had been informed about the decision said on Friday.
Such mining has been the subject of an interim ban since 2009. In proposing an extension of the ban, Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, cited "potential for pollution in waterways and harm to wildlife, desert vegetation and air quality."
Felicity Barringer's story offers this political perspective on the moratorium:
The long moratorium has been opposed by the region's Congressional Republicans. They argue that it would prevent the creation of thousands of jobs and upend a 28-year-old compromise on land use forged by environmentalists and mining proponents during the Reagan administration.
Once again, then, the story is spun as one that pits rural economics against environmental protection. See a recent, related post here.
A subsequent New York Times report is here.
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