The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving to abolish a rule that allowed a congressional committee to declare an emergency and shut down leasing and drilling for uranium in northern Arizona.
A House Resources committee earlier this summer used a little-used rule in Section 204 of the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act that allows them to take emergency action to protect threatened public lands. BLM and the Interior Dept. call the rule "redundant" because the Secretary of Interior can intervene to take protective steps and question the constitutionality of it.
The public has 15 days to comment on the proposed rule change.
[right, schematic cross section of a solution-collapse breccia pipe in the Grand Canyon region. Credit, USGS]