Empowering grift

It’s going to take time to assess the full impact of President Trump’s March 20 executive order titled: “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” but one thing is certain – it has the potential for corruption on a scale we haven’t seen since the 1920s-era Teapot Dome scandal.
As is the case with most of Trump’s executive orders, it also has the potential to do little other than garner the usual dramatic headlines and the liberal tears on which Trump seems to thrive.
From a practical standpoint, the timelines in the order seem preposterous. The order gave federal agencies, many of which have been decimated by DOGE, ten days to identify all proposed mining projects that have submitted a mine plan or permit application and another ten days after that to identify “priority projects” that will be immediately approved and permitted with minimal environmental review. So much for an environmental review “proving” that northeastern Minnesota copper-nickel projects can be undertaken without harming water quality. The Trump administration appears to be proposing to skip that part almost entirely.
Equally concerning is the order’s elevation of mining as the top priority for all federal lands, a directive that provides no exception for federal wilderness areas or national parks. While the order can’t supersede federal law that protects these areas, at least some of those areas, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, can lose their protections from mining based on a national emergency declared by the President, something Trump has already declared for energy. Under this order, other forms of economic use of federal lands, such as all forms of outdoor recreation, timber production, cattle grazing, or the protection of water quality or wildlife habitat, will all take a back seat to mining.
While the environmental implications of this order are potentially devastating, the order is even worse when it comes to public integrity. Under Trump’s order, the government would be authorized to essentially fund and potentially even engineer the buildout of new mines, by offering loans, loan guarantees, technical and capital assistance, working capital, or other forms of public assistance.
But the kicker is the provision in Sec. 6(c) of his order which states: “Agencies that are empowered to make loans, loan guarantees, grants, equity investments… shall, to the extent permitted by law, take steps to rescind any policies that require an applicant to complete and submit to the agency as part of an application for such funds the disclosures that are required by Regulation S-K part 1300.”
This is the Security and Exchange Commission regulation that has, for years, set the rules for public disclosures related to mining projects. That includes the results of exploration as well as rules defining, measuring, and reporting of mineral reserves. All of that information needs to be backed by supporting documentation, which includes a pre-feasibility study by a “qualified person” with expertise in mine development.
These rules were designed to prevent the kind of fraud and misrepresentation that used to be rampant in the promotion of mining ventures. Trump’s order could very well take us back to the bad old days when investors were routinely fleeced by unscrupulous operators who overstated their identified reserves.
And given Trump’s transactional approach to virtually every aspect of federal policy, it’s easy to envision Trump using the directives included in his order to tip the playing field to benefit companies that shower him with favors or, coincidentally, invest in any of his new crypto ventures or any of the other products he regularly hawks from the White House. We’ve never had a president who has operated so shamelessly, and who has managed to skate away from scandals that would crush any previous politician.
Under this order, Trump has the ability to pick individuals or companies who could literally be paid by taxpayers to develop lucrative mining operations, or at least present the appearance of operating lucrative mining operations.
And what kind of royalty structure are we talking about? Who knows? For the right people, or for the right “contribution,” Trump might agree to hand over resources owned by the American people virtually for free. Those with the right connections stand to make a lot of money at the expense of our federal lands and the surrounding environment. It could make Teapot Dome look like a misdemeanor.
Then again, Trump’s order could go the way of most of the rest of them – and be shot down by a judge as unconstitutional or without foundation. Trump, after all, declared an energy emergency at a time when the U.S. production of domestic energy far surpasses any previous point in U.S. history. While Trump prefers to operate like a king, he has been running headlong into the federal court system, where his edicts are routinely neutered as unsupported rubbish. At this point, where it goes is anyone’s guess.