S.2242 - Save Oak Flat Act

As of 11-05-2015 has been referred to:

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which considers, reports, and oversees legislation in the following major areas: energy resources and development, including regulation, conservation, strategic petroleum reserves and appliance standards; nuclear energy; Indian affairs; public lands and their renewable resources; surface mining, Federal coal, oil, and gas, other mineral leasing; territories and insular possessions; and water resources.

Because the issues the Committee considers affect regional more than partisan interests, the panel has traditionally approached its work in a consensus building mode. Most policy considerations occur among members prior to public discussion of an issue, so that by the time the panel reports a measure, controversy has been abated and the vote is as close to unanimous as possible.

The bill S.2242 amends the Carl Levin and Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 to repeal the authorization and requirement for a land exchange between the Department of Agriculture and Resolution Copper Mining, LLC. under which 2,422 acres of Forest Service land located in Pinal County, Arizona, are to be exchanged for various parcels of land owned by Resolution Copper.

Oak Flat, which is within this exchange area, is a beautiful and unique place filled with irreplaceable natural treasures and rock formations, and is held sacred to the Apache community. Not to mention it is a valuable habitat and water source, that would be destroyed through cave block mining and contaminated by the tailings left behind by the mining company Resolution Copper/ Rio Tinto, a foreign mining company.

Links to members websites:

http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/members