Sandoval asks Obama to streamline permits for mining companies

By Cy Ryan

Friday, Sept. 16, 2011 | 2:23 p.m.

Gov. Brian Sandoval is asking President Barack Obama to eliminate regulations delaying the issuance of permits for mining companies operating on federal land.

In the request, aimed at improving Nevada's unemployment picture, Sandoval said it typically takes four to five years for the hard rock miners to get federal approval and sometimes it is drawn out to 12 years.

Before 2001, mining companies submitted plans to the local offices of the Bureau of Land Management, which published them in the Federal Register. President George W. Bush changed that, requiring that all notices be sent to the Department of Interior in Washington for final approval before being inserted in the Federal Register.

The notices could sit in Washington for a year before being published in the Federal Register without any changes, Sandoval said in the letter sent Friday.

"In light of the inordinate delays caused by the multi-step headquarters‚ review process, and its impact in stifling job creation, I urge that you direct the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to allow state offices to send items directly to the Federal Register unless the state office believes in its discretion that Washington D.C. review is needed," Sandoval wrote.

This process, said Sandoval, could shorten by months and in some cases years the time it takes to get the permit to begin mining.

The governor said the local BLM offices are "most able to make the right decisions."

The governor noted that Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and these suggested changes "will specifically and almost immediately clear the way for job growth in my state, and perhaps several others."