We need mining. However like the Ranch lands acts that basically give away federal lands to some ranchers while others pay market rates, the mining act as I understand it allows mining companies exploiting federal lands to all but avoid paying any royalties on the minerals they extract. They would have to pay if mining on private land, so they should pay into the common treasury the royalties for minerals mined on public land.
If the liberals and the feds close all the public lands to grazing, then your food prices would go way up and your food would increasingly come from feed lots full of drugs and growth hormones.
No more ‘free range’ grass eating cattle ?
Do not believe the line that the feds give away public lands to ranchers or miners. The ranchers and miners pay cash money plus have to maintain the land to the feds standards.
Closing public lands will increase our energy costs when coal mines are closed...
How about simply giving away vast tracts of public lands to just anyone who wants them? Sure, the environmentalists will pick up a few, but so will miners and oil-drillers and ranchers and ordinary Americans. Who ever said that the government was particularly proficient at managing land? Karl Marx perhaps but he never got citizenship. Distinguished members of Congress can manage public lands to finance and ensure their reelections.