Biden Must Render Uranium Hands Off for Mining

In case you haven’t been following President Biden’s seemingly daily list of new Executive Orders (EOs), he just bypassed Congress to block mining on nearly a million acres — 1,562 square miles — of Arizona’s Grand Canyon, America’s only source of high-grade uranium, by declaring it a “national monument” under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

That legislation was originally intended as an emergency measure to prevent looting on Native American lands, with designations limited to "the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected."

And while 16 presidents have established 152 national monuments, few have done so in defiance of state and local lawmakers.

Bill Clinton dramatically changed all that, setting aside 1.9 million acres, larger than the state of Delaware, for a Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah to block proposed mining. Barack Obama added another 1.6 million, creating and expanding more monuments than any other president in history.

One Obama EO monument designation quadrupled the size of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument originally created by President George W. Bush in 2006 to 582,578 square miles, nearly double the size of Texas.

President Trump regarded this 20-year trend as a government land grab, an assessment largely triggered by Obama’s designation of a 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument site in Utah just prior to leaving office to prevent oil and gas drilling which sidestepped opposition by the governor and state officials.

Without officially stating this, the transparent true purpose of Joe Biden’s latest national monument designation, his fifth, extends his administration’s war on fossil fuels to nuclear energy.

What Democrats, including Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, couldn’t block this and other mining through Congress, Biden is doing by decree.

Whereas the cover story claims that uranium mining could contaminate water and wildlife, a 2021 U.S. Geological Survey found that springs and wells in the region met federal drinking-water standards despite decades of this activity.

America already imports 95% of the uranium used to power nuclear reactors, with most of it coming from Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia and Russia (the third largest source at 12%).

Flash back again here to the Obama administration when a Russian-backed company, Uranium One, bought a 20% stake in U.S. Uranium through transfer to a Canadian company.

A young Republican U.S. Representative at the time, Ron DeSantis, reported having received information from a confidential informant regarding FBI evidence of bribery and extortion involving Uranium One investors and their relationship with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation before the deal was consummated … a time when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

Rep. DeSantis reported that the FBI started gathering evidence in 2009, including recordings, emails, and witnesses. The witnesses they talked to said that Russian nuclear industry officials used bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, and other illegal tactics to expand Russia's influence over America's uranium market.

Suspicions of the Clintons’ involvement ran high as Bill had recently received $500,000 for a speech presented to the bank in Russia that was working on the Uranium One deal, and all told, the Clinton Foundation reportedly collected $145 million from people linked to Uranium One.

Hillary admitted that she approved and signed off on the Uranium One transaction, and the Obama DOJ under then-Attorney General Eric Holder chose not to act in pursuance of FBI evidence.

Which brings to mind a special irony of Hillary’s Trump-Russia collusion canard that dogged President Trump throughout his presidency and even got him impeached.

Now flash forward — back to the present — to our current president who has worked to kill U.S. fossil energy — now uranium as well.

Meanwhile, as the Wall Street Journal board points out, “Progressives want to block all mining in the U.S., including for critical minerals such as lithium and nickel that are needed to power their green-energy transition. But that means mining will occur in countries with fewer environmental protections.”

In short, this latest land grab is but another monumental act of far-left fraud on America.