Exploration and mining in mineral-rich Nevada could be affected, CB Online reports:
The Nevada Senate passed a bill nearly unanimously Thursday that ends the authority of the state’s mining and defunct sugar beet industries to invoke eminent domain to take private land for their own use.
Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, who sponsored SB86, said she focused on the two industries because they represent companies that take property for private enrichment rather than for the public good.
When the rights were granted over a century ago, the industries were paramount to the state’s economic vitality, but now these “provisions are antiquated” and deserve to be overturned, she said.
Sugar beets have not been grown in Nevada since the 1960s, but eminent domain was used to acquire property for pipelines that once served the industry.
When the bill was introduced in February, mining representatives said it would harm mining and exploration efforts in the state, and cost Nevada the high-paying jobs that go along with the industry.
Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, whose sprawling district includes much of mining-rich northeastern Nevada, was the only senator who voted against the bill.
Eminent domain became an issue last summer when a Canadian-based mining concern settled with an Elko County rancher after the mining company cited the law in seeking access to mineral rights on ranch land.