A Republican-led effort to protect Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp from a proposed titanium mine is dead for now.
Republicans sponsored legislation in the Georgia State House of Representatives that would have blocked the state from permitting any mine on a titanium-rich ridge hemming in the eastern edge of the Houston-sized swamp. Scientists have warned a mine there would eventually drain the Okefenokee, a national wildlife refuge.
But the bill won’t get a hearing in the state House Natural Resources Committee, effectively killing the bill before the end of the current legislative session, co-sponsor state Rep. Ron Stephens (R) said.
“The area ...