What if communications today were governed by a law passed before the telephone was invented? Or if transportation were guided by federal policy made before there were cars?
That's exactly the type of anachronism in play regarding America's key law governing the extraction of hard-rock minerals, such as gold, silver and copper, on public land. The Mining Act of 1872, which President Ulysses S. Grant signed, still sanctions destructive practices on what amounts to one-third of the country's acreage and 46% of California’s. It can create toxic plumes and moonscape rubble in national forests, national monuments and Bureau of Land Management holdings that many regard as their favorite places on Earth. That’s one reason why pressure is mounting to change this antiquated 19th century legislation...