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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 14, 1985
We may not need to mine in these potentially rich lands today,
but we ought to find out what's there, and only exploration can
tell us, and it involves a negligible disturbance of the terrain.
Some areas deserve to be preserved in their pristine state for
their unique qualities or even for their historic significance--!
wouldn't suggest, for example, mining on Nob Hill or the grounds
of the Capitol Building or the White House--but the fact is that
multiple use of the land can and does work, as I explained at the
outset of my remarks.
In seeking to unlock the mineral wealth of this country, we have
no choice other than to keep looking for Nature's needle in Na
ture's haystack.
It's as simple as that. And those who would
prevent us from discovering the needle are really giving the
country the shaft!
Indeed I do not think these excluded lands will ever benefit
posterity so much as they now benefit those few who are rich
enough and have leisure time enough to go there and enjoy their
undisturbed pleasure--and these are precisely the people who for
tify the environmentalist movement.
It is nothing short of galling to see the environmental extrem
ists, wielding the awesome power of their vocal organizations in
every precinct of the land, insisting on stricter and stricter·
standards that have only the most marginal benefits·
, if any, but
require tremendous expenditures without adding one iota to pro
ductivity. Have they utterly forgotten the consequence for the
American military posture that protects their freedom to engage
in even their own irresponsible behavior?•••
In saying this, I have no intention of letting the people who ad
minister and enforce the laws entirely off the hook. Quite the
contrary.
In the mining industry today, digging into the ground is much
easier than tunneling through the Federal Register, but nobody
can do one without doing the other. Regulations are written in
mind-numbing detail, emphasizing design and engineering stand
ards instead of performance standards and results. They are rig
id where they should be flexible, obtuse where they should be
clear, prolific where they should be concise, and hopelessly le
galistic where they should embody common sense. They are a para
dise for bureaucrats and pure hell for the practical businessman.
If an old-time prospector were to return today, he'd be amazed to
find that he'd better hire a lawyer, an accountant and an envi
ronmental engineer, before he dared risk his grubstake on a mule,
a pick and a shovel. Compliance with federal regulations, which
are usually as perplexing as they are prolific, has become an
item of immense cost for the minerals industry--and, again, one
that is probably not equalled anywhere else in the world.
And what comes at the end of the long and tortuous regulatory
process? Why, a new beginning, of course. Because the process
itself amounts to an engraved invitation to the courtroom, where