Rio Tinto’s supporters changed the language of the Oak Flat land exchange in an attempt to make it more palatable fortheir colleagues and to curry additional support when they attached it as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act. The Oak Flat land exchange is buried the defense bill (Page 1103 of the 1,600 page bill) as section 3003. The bill has passed the House of Represenatives, but has not yet come up for a vote in the Senate.
One of Rio Tinto’s supporters even went to far to imply that the Director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition is OK with the changes in the bill. He knows better, and of course, nothing could be further from the truth. The langauge changes are mostly greenwashing and are still a far cry from what is needed to protect Oak Flat.
We have prepared a fact sheet explaining why the changes in the bill fall far short of the mark.
Take a look at the fact sheet.
There is still time to contact your Senators and ask them to strip the Oak Flat land exchange from the National Defense Authorization Act. For more information about how you can take action, go here.