Overturning cyanide ban bad for the environment and for taxpayers

 

By Pete Geddes
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment
Bozeman, Mont.


Montana's economic prosperity is no longer tied to extracting natural resources. It is simply not our strong suit.

The best strategy for our prosperity lies in policy innovations that retain and attract human capital, the ultimate key to progress. In part, this requires protecting the environment and reducing the state's income taxes while simultaneously stressing security, civility, good health care and education.

Can our legislators understand these linkages? A bill recently introduced by Sen. Debbie Shea, D-Butte, implies the answer is no.

SB 436 would ask voters to reconsider Initiative 137, passed in 1998. Initiative 137 banned new cyanide heap leach mining operations. Its catalyst was a proposed gold mine near the headwaters of the Blackfoot River. Shea's bill clearly states that it intends to amend I-137 to allow cyanide leach mining "with new environmental protections."

In addition to threatening harm to both the environment and the economy, it harkens back to the Third World political culture of Montana's early statehood. Cyanide heap leach mining extracts gold by grinding up mountains and spraying a cyanide solution on the remains. We can see the obvious results as we drive I-90 past the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall.

Cyanide is notorious for leaking into and contaminating ground water. When it does, it often harms wildlife and human health, and infringes on the property rights of neighbors. This is why voters passed Initiative 137 by 52 percent to 48 percent.

One of the first lessons responsible parents teach their children is both simple and valid: If you make a mess, clean it up. Across time and national boundaries, mining companies use their political influence to escape this admonition. Their economic calculus is simple. Benefits from mining are current and concentrated. Social, economic, and environmental costs are distant, long lasting, and diffuse. Montana has many examples. Here's one.

The now bankrupt Pegasus Corporation operated the Zortman-Landusky mine near the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in north-central Montana. It left a legacy of environmental problems. The $32 million reclamation bond the company was forced to post is grossly insufficient (by tens of millions) to do the job. If reclamation occurs, taxpayers will pick up the tab.

The West is vexed by policies that subsidize the exploitation of natural resources. A comfortable alliance among state and federal agencies, elected politicians, and resource developers reinforces this tradition. The mutual interests of this alliance come at the expense of local communities, taxpayers, and sustainable ecosystems.

Though these policy prescriptions no longer serve the interests of most Westerners, they have defenders. University of Colorado Law professor Charles Wilkinson describes them as the "lords of yesterday" -- tenacious political groups and institutions that refuse to die even though demographic, economic and technological changes have eroded the original justifications for their existence.

Companies that recognize and respect the West's new values may prosper and gain respect in our increasingly Green region. Montana's Stillwater Mining Company, for example, has an excellent environmental record. If it can survive global competition, it may serve as a model.

As a rule, poor people willingly trade off environmental quality to capture income. While there are exceptions that prove the rule, this is generally true across time and cultures. But Montana is no longer a colonial economy. Our education, income and environmental sensitivities have increased. Our political leaders should recognize that these rise together.

Let's be clear: Environmental protection alone will not ensure everyone has a better future. A dynamic, open economy creates opportunity for some and hardship for others. Everywhere workers with lower levels of education experience problems transferring to expanding sectors of the new economy.

Resource-dependent communities, like others, seek economic progress. Those with an economy based upon a single factor, such as mining, are subject to external influences beyond their control: international markets, the national shift from goods to services production and the investment strategies of large corporations.

Their future will largely depend on how their entrepreneurs respond to changing opportunities and preferences. Successful entrepreneurs understand that environmental quality is key to attracting both human and financial capital.

Our state can have a great future -- but only if we acknowledge the changing economy, the increasing value of human capital, and the characteristics which attract and those that repel it.