Reid at odds with environmentalists over mining

RENO -- Environmentalists are rallying opposition to Sen. Harry Reid's effort to postpone stricter federal regulation of a mining industry hit hard by low metal prices.

But Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he expects he'll prevail despite strongly worded criticism from the conservationists that typically regard him to be a rare political ally in the West.

"It has survived so far. It looks like it is going to be taken care of," the Senate Democratic whip said as negotiations continued in a House-Senate conference committee.

The Sierra Club and Greenpeace are among those trying to block Reid's attempt to delay the proposed environmental regulations. Reid is trying to insert language in an emergency spending bill providing military aid to Kosovo and humanitarian aid to Central America.

The administration-backed mining reforms are aimed at better protecting land and water around hardrock mines, giving federal regulators new authority to fine mine operators and require them to post bonds to cover future potential damage.

Reid wants to delay final implementation until after the National Academy of Sciences completes a review of existing mining laws at the end of July.

White House officials on Monday identified Reid's effort as one of a series of measures that could potentially draw President Clinton's veto of the overall appropriation bill.

But Reid laughed that off in an interview.

"There is about as much chance of the president vetoing this bill as there is of me jumping 7 feet in the high jump," Reid said.

"This is a $13 billion bill. My language costs no money. The president would be laughed out of town if he did that," he said.

The Wilderness Society and National Parks and Conservation Association said in a letter to newspaper editorial boards this week that several members of Congress "are trying to bamboozle the American people by attaching anti-environmental" amendments to the spending bill.

"It is reprehensible that our nation's leaders are using legislation that would help the men and women of our armed forces and provide food and shelter to storm victims in Central America to forward their pro-business agenda," they said.

Reid's home state is the third biggest producer of gold in the world, behind South Africa and Australia.

But gold prices hovering at close to 20-year lows have sent the industry reeling and mining officials say new regulations will send their business packing overseas.

The Bureau of Land Management has rejected Reid's requests for further delay and intends to close a public comment period on the so-called "3809" regulations as scheduled on Saturday.

Reid's language in the spending bill requires the BLM to continue accepting public comment until four months after the National Academy of Sciences completes its review July 31.

Environmental opponents said the move, which still must be approved by the full House and Senate, would sideline new mining regulations for more than a year.

The National Audubon Society, Friends of the Earth and Izaak Walton League are among the others opposing a whole list of so-called "riders" to the spending bill, including Reid's.

Brian Vincent, an organizer for the American Lands Alliance based in Nevada City, Calif., said they are especially disappointed in Reid.

"Many people from the environmental community took time off to go work for his campaign," Vincent said.

"It is an ambush on the environment and the political process," he said.

Marge Sill, a Sierra Club activist in Reno, said Reid earned environmental support in Nevada in the past more for his stands on issues outside the mining industry. His most recent scorecard ratings with the League of Conservation Voters were 63 percent last year, 71 percent and 85 percent the years before that.

"We have refrained from being on his back too much about mining. We know he is bad on mining," Sill said.

"But those anti-environmental riders put us in a real bind. To put it in a rider is to use the same tactics the anti-environmental forces use," she said.

Meanwhile, mining leaders can't say enough good things about Reid.

"He has stood up for mining and for Nevada many, many times and recognizes the importance of mining to rural Nevada," said Russell Fields, president of the Nevada Mining Association.

"It seems irrational for the rules to go forward without benefit of the public's having had the opportunity to review the National Academy of Science's report," Fields said.

Stephen D'Esposito, president of the nonprofit Mineral Policy Center in Washington, said Reid is stalling reforms in the works for more than two years.

"If the National Academy of Sciences was going to be a critical part of this, they should have been put in at the beginning of the process rather than at the end," he said.

"If history is a precedent and we delay for the NAS review, another three months from now we will delay for something else."

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