So let it be written! So let it be done!
NOT
The front page above-the-fold story today, Saturday, May 3rd, in the Minnesota Star Tribune blared that Donald Trump issued an Executive Order to fast track the mine formerly known as PolyMet. (Now it’s called NewRange, a joint venture between old PolyMet owner Glencore and Teck Resources of Canada.)
From the headline, you’d conclude that the new copper nickel mine will open in a few weeks, right? Well, not exactly, as even NewRange admits:
Asked whether permitting would move faster, [NewRange director] Marsh said he didn’t think it will change the schedule. “We fully expect a full and rigorous review process,” he added in an email.
He sound almost discouraged, doesn’t he? Director Marsh has good reason to be discouraged. Why?
Because although he issued an executive order, Trump is a headpiece short of a Ramses II.
Trump can’t change either permitting law, either in the state or federally, by himself. And the moment, NewRange is ab initio with the three major permits it needs: permit to mine (MDNR), water discharge permit (MPCA), and wetlands destruction permit (Army Corps of Engineers). It has to reapply for all of them, having been drubbed in litigation by, especially, the Fond du Lac Band, and environmental groups like the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Water Legacy, the Friends of the Boundary Waters, and the list goes on.
The first thing that New Range has to do is engage in some serious self-examination of the on-the-cheap mine design that it originally proposed.
The executive order is just Donald Trump’s febrile dream.
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