Huge land-swap proposals in doubt due to Renzi upheaval

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Dennis Wagner

The Arizona Republic

When federal grand jurors handed up a 35-count indictment of Rick Renzi last month, they accused the Arizona congressman of cheating to win an election and abusing his powers for profit.

But those details only describe the charges, not the environmental and economic fallout from the scandal.

Renzi's political upheaval stymied a pair of huge federal land exchanges: One deal would have added 15,000 acres of dinosaur bones and archaeological ruins to Petrified Forest National Park, an expansion already approved by Congress.

The other deal would give Resolution Copper Mining LLC about 3,000 acres of national forest near Superior in return for 5,500 acres of conservation areas scattered around the state. It also would result in the largest copper mine in Arizona. Resolution would spend about $3.5 billion even before any ore was extracted. Merits of the deal, originally sponsored by Renzi, are a subject of debate.

Most advocates agree that both land-swap proposals were on a fast track toward congressional approval until they became tainted by the federal corruption investigation. Some worry that the scandal will attach a stigma to federal land exchanges in general.

"That's the shame of it. . . . People see it as just a deal, a backroom deal, not in the public interest," said Andrew Laurenzi, program director at the Sonoran Institute.

"That didn't put a very good light on the process," agreed Hank Gutierrez, president of the Superior Chamber of Commerce. "I hold (Renzi) completely responsible."

...

http://www.azcentral.com/news/green/articl...8renzi0318.html