Threats to the BWCA rear their ass-ugly heads again
This is from a missive, dated Feb. 19, sent out to the email list, which includes me, of Friends of the Boundary Waters.
Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum has requested that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals pause the legal proceedings against Twin Metals, the Chilean-owned mining company seeking to open a toxic copper-sulfide mine near the edge of the Boundary Waters.
The move is in step with Trump’s vow to “drill baby drill” and will directly benefit the foreign-owned mining giant, Twin Metals.
What’s particularly troubling is that this motion mirrors what Twin Metals’ lawyers unsuccessfully attempted in January, when they tried to delay oral argument.
Burgum was governor of North Dakota, and is a total extraction industry tool of the most craven and groveling sort. And in this matter he has company – indeed, practically a twin – in the person of Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN). This is from Feb. 5:
Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber has reintroduced legislation to overturn a 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that was imposed two years ago under the Biden administration.
The bill would also return two key federal mineral leases to Twin Metals Minnesota, the company vying to build an underground mine for copper and nickel near Ely, Minn., on the shore of Birch Lake, just south of the wilderness.
Twin Metals is owned by the Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta. The Biden administration revoked those leases in 2022.
(MPR)
I haven’t found any indication that Stauber’s bill will be included in the reconciliation package. I don’t know whether it could get to 60 in the Senate without that. Regarding Burgum’s effort, the DC Court of Appeals isn’t over-friendly to corporate interests. But the US Supreme Court, which would be its next stop, is, though it’s possible that the majority’s “states’ rights” emphasis could play a role. It’s clear above all that the forces backing environmentally destructive mining in Minnesota believe they have new life, and will pull out all the stops.
Comment from Joe Musich: I see the schism only winding up between state reps and federal over plenty of lardollini’s executive orders. I am told Stauber will not meet the public at town halls and the incoming number of phone calls is mindboggling. People up there may be to some degree supportive of mining but there are plenty living up there not doing mining work now because so much has become automated. I believe healthcare now employs most people. Those folks know what Medicaid cuts will do to themselves, to the ones they love or to their jobs.
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