More on the CEMEX Bill

I’m a rookie.  I get it.  And in the haste of breaking yesterday’s CEMEX news, I bungled important details (perhaps to make a point about NIMBYism) regarding the exchange of land. That post has since been corrected.

My apologies — SCVTalk readers deserve better.  The oversight also glosses over the guts of this effort, which represents a significant improvement to the 2008 attempt.

In today’s Signal, Josh Premako has much more detail than the press release and preliminary news stories that followed. 

The key to keeping a gargantuan sand-and-gravel mine out of the Santa Clarita Valley for good will be selling off 10,000-plus acres near Victorville to compensate cement giant Cemex, Inc. for the loss of its two mining contracts. McKeon’s bill – HR 4332 – calls for the Secretary of the Interior to cancel Cemex’s mining contracts, and for the BLM to sell 10,269 acres it owns near Victorville to compensate Cemex.

McKeon’s office also shed more light on the quid pro quo:

“Probably the largest single change you’re seeing is the way compensation to Cemex is handled,” said Mike Murphy, Santa Clarita’s intergovernmental relations officer. “(McKeon) listened very carefully to the concerns that groups and individuals expressed about (the previous bill).”

The land was already on the BLM’s disposal list, Murphy said. McKeon’s bill would accelerate the timeline to sell off the undeveloped property.

McKeon’s previous bill would have, in effect, swapped the proposed Soledad Canyon site for the land in Victorville, where Cemex already has a cement plant.