Under the guise of bolstering the economy, House Republicans today will attempt to push through dozens of policy riders that would undercut the nation's environmental laws.
Anticipated measures would reduce the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect air and water resources, slash the Interior Department's Land and Water Conservation Fund and make it easier for mining companies to carry out "mountaintop removal" – in which entire tops of mountains are sheared off to get at the coal underneath.
These measures alone should be reason enough for the California congressional delegation to reject what is being proposed in the EPA and Interior Department spending bills. Here is one more.
Rep. Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, has added a rider that would end a moratorium on uranium mining around Grand Canyon National Park. If it were to become law, 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon would be opened to uranium mining.
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