Armed Militia Takes Over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge HQ

EPA causes a spill into the Animas River, willful negligence, with prior knowledge of the risks of digging into the Gold King mine - nothing.

Wait wait wait... it's the MINER's fault, right?

Epa f*#ked up but let's be clear here, it was NOT the EPA that created the pollutants in the first place.

"Frankly, I don't want my land – which includes all the federal land in the West – turned over to people who behave like you. I want to be free to hunt, fish, hike, ride my horse, my mountain bike or all-terrain vehicle, to picnic, camp, and to bird watch on the nation's vast tracts of federal ground, and I don't want to have to ask for your permission to do so.

"Your protest is nothing more than an elaborate tantrum conducted with firearms. If you actually won claim to any public lands, I think you'd intimidate and bully others the way you and your followers did in Nevada, and the way you are doing now. Furthermore, your family owes me and 320 million of my fellow Americans more than a million dollars in back grazing fees for using public land without paying your fair share.

"When I cut firewood on nearby Forest Service land, I purchase my 10-cord, personal use permit. I pay my camping fees. I buy my hunting license. I pay to park and use ramps on wild rivers where I kayak. I pay fees because they are used to improve recreation opportunities for everyone.

So I want you to go home and start paying me and your fellow citizens what you owe us. That's what good citizens and neighbors do.

Now both metal and coal mining companies pay a severance tax on every ton of ore / coal mined to pay for reclamation of abandoned mines. No one mentions that...

20¢ per barrel of oil or per 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas, as appropriate.
Fee charged for oil or gas drilling may not exceed $200 per permit.

... rabid anti-government partisan Ammon Bundy deigned to accept a $530,000 small-business loan from that same government in 2010. The loan's guaranteed, and could cost taxpayers $22,419. Whether or not he's paid it back is unknown, at least to me. (He reportedly declined to answer emails on the subject.) But clearly his anti-governmental passion has limits. He thinks the federal government is way too big, but the part of it that lends money to folks like him is all right.

Bundy's family also benefited from the federal government in other ways. For one, if you grow cattle you have to feed and water 'em. Private landowners tend to charge a significant fee to let you graze your animals on their land. The feds charged Bundy's family a small fraction of the private market rate. (The Government reportedly charges 93% less than private landowners.) Bundy's father showed his gratitude by refusing to pay even that, as I understand it.]

Jan 10, 2016 - 10:13am PT
The mine I work at pays 25% of our revenue in property and "mine-by-proceeds" tax. Plus severence taxes. Plus income tax.

How much should a mine pay to cover historical and current societal costs?