Show f u f I. I J. J i THE VOICE OF BUSINESS Reason gets lostin lost lostin in the wilderness n By Richard L. L Lesher President Chamber of I Commerce of the United Sta States tes Given our our growing problems with shortages and embargoes an out all effort to locate locale and develop our own mineral minerai resources seems like the obvious obVious ob ob- ob- ob tt thing ng to do It comes as a considerable shock then thelt to learn that we are In n fact moving in n the he opposite direction Unbelievable as it may seem seeman seeman seeman an area larger than 25 of the 27 states stales east cast of the Mississippi Is no longer accessible even for mineral exploration much less pining mining And most of the restrictions were Imposed very recently recently 1 In 1968 roughly 17 percent of our public lands were excluded from mineral exploration and development evel under the mining law and 24 percent were excluded ex ex- eluded under the leasing laws laws laws- the laws governing the use of mineral resources on public lands By 1974 the totals r reached ched 67 percent and 73 percent respectively THESE LANDS were withdrawn withdrawn with with- drawn from productive use under a bewildering variety of programs ranging programs ranging from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Set Set- Act to the Wilderness Act t to the needs of the military Congress and various parts of th l he e Executive Branch have all pa had d a hand in the process In principle there is certainly nothing wrong with preserving public land with unusual scenic pf or recreational value I support that hat wholeheartedly But surely there must be reasonable limits The Federal Government Government Government Govern Govern- ment has g gone ne hog wild in the preservation game largely I suspect because each individual individual individual in in- move in that direction hooks praiseworthy while nobody has bothered to step ck and see what it all adds up f to The land area involved is enormous but the effect on our future r ture mineral supplies is even event l. l IP t 1 huf l 1 u. u HIM vm vm suggest r Thaws f. f Lures figures suggest Thanks to tor to toa a accidents of history and geography most of our public lands are ore located In the West and that's also where the most promising mineral mineraI deposits are found Over third one-third of our land area Is public land Why should private companies companies com corn panics be allowed to exploit public land FIRST because of the private company Is the most efficient mechanism ever Invented for providing the products and services we all want Government Government Govern Govern- ment Is not equipped to do the job and would probably botch It if It tried Our need for copper zinc coal etc elc and and the things made from them Is no less important than our need for Second most extractive industries do not disfigure or otherwise harm the land on under which they operate In those cases where there is a potential for damage the damage can be prevented or repaired without a total ban on mining It is s just plain silly to suggest that the tiny entrance to toan toan toan an underground mine ruins a million-acre million forest Most people and animals wouldn't even know there FINALLY the companies that do the work bear the cost and nd risk of exploration and not development not the taxpayer tax tax- payer In the case of lands governed by the leasing laws private companies usually bid competitively for the right to develop specified resources in inthe inthe inthe the tracts at auction The money they pay goes into the Treasury but theres there's no guarantee the minerals will cover the cost of the lease Some companies win big others lose big What should we do to assure a future supply of the minerals we need At a minimum we should charge one particular department or bureau of the Federal Government with keeping track of the total amount of land that is being closed to deve development Then we e should work workout ways ways out to permit exploration and in these I Q Wil II closed areas while C ose areas W J e s still I providing sufficient protection to the lands on which it takes place And wed we'd better do it soon to 1 establish wilderness areas in 35 states pending before the Senate Interior Committee |