This morning, it came to light that Hugo Chavez has taken over Venezuela’s largest gold mine. It was previously mined and operated by Crystallex Canada, according to the AP Report. While this is not surprising, given that Venezuela is governed by a Socialist Despot, the manner in which he did it is rather instructive.
You see, he took away Crystallex’s mining rights by refusing to reissue their environmental permits. This stunningly passive-aggressive move allows him to wage war on two fronts:
- He gets to further his agenda of eliminating private industry.
- He can proclaim himself a champion of the environment.
In both of these arguments, he can decree that he is the good guy. He took away the unjust profits of private industry, and returned the wealth to the people. He is also eliminating a major polluter, since his obviously unbiased regulatory team failed to renew Crystallex’s permits.
This isn’t the first time that Chavez has pulled this stunt, as he previously took over the telephone companies, oil, and steel industries. It should have even been expected, as most of his social programs have been funded by oil profits. With the dropping price of oil, he had to make up the difference somewhere.
Why is this important? Well, the environment is a big issue worldwide. The economic chaos is causing budget deficits on a global scale. Who can profess to know whether or not some of these other mining centric countries won’t seize mines from private industry to prop up slumping treasuries? What’s keeping them from drumming up a pollution charge to evict private interests, or shut down mining altogether?
The answers are, respectively: “No one.” and “Nothing, really.”
We are almost certain to see further expansion of government in the environmental arena in the US, under the Obama administration. With his adversarial approach to coal fired power plants, and the philosophy of a “cap and trade” tax scheme as part of his platform, the mining industry is sure to be among the first affected. From there, it is just a short jump to government-owned mines as part of an effort to “end global warming”. We’ve already saved banks, why not do something good for the planet? So the argument will go, and along with it, true economic freedom.
So there you go. We’ll be here to keep you abreast of the latest news.
‘Til then, we’ll be…
Signing off…..
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