Updated: 12:27 PM MST December 29, 2020
ARIZONA, USA It’s a tradition that at the end of each year we take a look back and reflect on what happened: the good, the bad and the ugly. In order to learn from the bad and appreciate the good, this tradition may be especially important in a year that, for many, seems to be made up mostly of the ugly.
The coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly dominated people’s lives and the news cycle this year. Add to that the civil unrest over the summer that many big cities and small towns across the U.S. experienced and combine it with a contentious presidential election and 2020 could be considered exceptionally ugly.
President-elect Joe Biden may be ready to shut that door for good.
âI canât believe I have to say this, but we canât let Donald Trump open up the Grand Canyon for uranium mining,â Biden tweeted in August, after a Trump administration task force on nuclear fuel proposed relaxing restrictions on mining on federal lands.
In a statement posted at the same time, Biden called the Grand Canyon an âirreplaceable jewelâ and blasted the Trump administrationâs mining plan, saying he would focus instead on developing clean energy. While Biden did not lay out a specific mining plan, his statement was still enough for Kevin Dahl.
Biden firm on uranium-mining ban around the Grand Canyon havasunews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from havasunews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Advertisement: “We are finding out more things about how water travels and how one spring in the Grand Canyon might be influenced by last winter’s snowpack, and how another spring might be being supplied with water from thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, depending upon the geology that supports it,” he said. Dahl worries the aquifers and faults make the Grand Canyon susceptible to water contamination and other negative effects of mining. He and other environmentalists point to the 17-acre Canyon Mine in Kaibab National Forest, which was in place before the moratorium took effect and was, therefore, exempt.
Flagstaff History: Generosity highlighted Christmases of years past azdailysun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from azdailysun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.