NYS is currently expanding its Indian land/owned casinos in an effort to cash in on two things: the percieved availability of gambling monies as a means to pump cash into a depressed economy; and to take advantage of the legal dichotomy between Indian lands and the rest of the state and US.
Personally I think this is a short-sighted plan, and one that is ultimately going to do more harm than good. And the violence on the Onodaga reservation rising from how to distribute the revenues from Turning Stone does nothing to make me more comfortable with the plan.
I’ve been thinking about what other industries might benefit from such a lack of legal restrictions, and began to wonder - why not use this legal limbo to allow for the construction of powerplants to (shocking, I know) actually provide electrical power to the NorthEast from the NorthEast? The advantages I can see would be that the ecological regulations would be greatly eased - I think the Feds may have some means to force EPA compliance, but even there I’m not sure of it. To say nothing of the continuing need for educated technicians to operate and maintain such a plant, which would seem to me to be a natural goal for the tribal youth to work towards: with preferential hiring going to qualified technicians from the nation I’d think it could have the benefit of giving the youth a goal that includes local opportunities, instead of having to choose between education or leaving the tribal lands and areas.
Additionally, I’ll admit I’m in favor of nuclear power. With the only regulatory agency to worry about being the AEC things would be much simpler than anywhere else for making a nuke plant, and without the local politics to provide egregious stumbling blocks the cost inflation that killed several other plants post TMI, and made Seabrook so expensive for the utilities that had invested in it, it may be able to prove that nuclear power is economical in the US after all.
Either way, it seems to me to be a means to take aggressive advantage of the legal limbo out there for these tribes and areas, that doesn’t end up trying to suck monies out of the lowest income groups.
So, what am I missing in my reasoning? Not so much about the nuke plants, but for any means of setting up modern, and environmentally sound, power plants that aren’t being stifled under several inconsistent regulatory agencies? That and the lack of tranmission losses would seem to give such a plant huge competetive benefits against Canadian, or midwest power.
First off, how are you generating this power? Are you going to dam up a large river? Burn fossil fuels? Create a solar/ wind farm? Some of these methodologies may well require more land than the reservation actually has at its disposal (e.g. to create the lake behind the dam, required for hydro- electric generation).
There may also be effects on land outside the reservation, such as smoke plumes from a thermo- electric plant, or water supply issues downstream from a hydro- electric dam. And of course, the power requires a transmission- line corridor in order to connect with the Grid, which may also have to run over non- reservation land.
Aside from questions over who is allowed to build thermo- neuclear generating plants, you also have a question of how will the fuel be acquired and delivered to the site, and what will be done with the spent fuel.
There would certainly be PR connotations. Natives could no longer be touted as “guardians of the land” or teary-eyed icons for environmental commercials. Any negotiations for expansion of reserve lands would probably go down the tubes, as Federal, regional and environmental resistance would be brought to bear if the land was going to be used for unpopular purposes.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of pressure from the native community to exploit their tribal land for strip mining, landfills, or refineries for these very reasons, despite the “legal limbo” that might apply.
I think you’re starting with the false premise that Indian lands are exempt from State and/or Federal laws.
The current state of Indian gaming is the result of State and Federal acquiesence. If the government wants to lift restrictions on certain activities, as you suggest, there is no need to ‘favor’ Indian land with those exemptions. The politics involved would be the same, i.e. siting on Indian lands is not a silver bullet.
As mentioned above, Tribal Trust lands are not exempt from Federal rules, and the EPA does have Federal jurisdiction. Although IANAL, especially in Indian law, I was involved in county government when a casino was built. If a big smoky plant of any sort was constructed, the adjacent state government still could sue, have input in the necessary Federal Environmental Impact Statement, etc. Then there is the matter of pissing off your neighbors in the first place.
In Minnesota one of the nuclear power plants was built on Tribal Trust land near Red Wing. (The Prairie Island plant.) In the mid-sixties the Tribe OK’d the project because of various money generating agreements. Now the Tribe (as a governmental entity, not necessarily individual members) hates the proximity of the power plant. What has changed in the very lucrative Prairie Island Casino which has added some decent revenue to the Tribe. They don’t need the revenue from the power plant any more and would rather the whole thing went away.
So, a problem with using Trust property for constructing an item generally not desired on regular state property is that laws still need to be followed and the local Tribe members don’t necessarily like questionable stuff in their own back yards.