Trump and Walz Can Agree on One Thing: Mining in Minnesota - WSJ
BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE AREA WILDERNESS, Minn.—Hundreds of feet under the forest floor and next to a quiet river lies what proponents hope will be a foundation of America’s clean-energy future: shiny, jagged clusters of copper and nickel ore. It has also emerged as an unlikely flashpoint in the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump wants to mine it, President Biden wants to block the project for 20 years, and Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has taken on the role of pragmatic referee.
Instead of siding with Democrats, as his liberal record as governor would suggest, Walz has repeatedly echoed industry and labor unions’ arguments for building a copper-nickel mine in northern Minnesota, saying that if it can be done safely it could be a boon for the regional economy and clean-energy infrastructure. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the November election, the question of whether to move forward on the mine will fall to her administration—with Walz, presumably, as a key adviser.
The debate over whether to build the mine, known as Twin Metals, has stretched for nearly 15 years and three presidents. Initially it pit environmentalists and progressives—many of whom live in populous Minneapolis and St. Paul—against labor unions in rural parts of the state. The debate has grown more complicated, reflecting the competing environmental interest of mining metals needed for solar panels and batteries.
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On a recent drizzly, gray morning, an employee at the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters advocacy group steered an aging pontoon boat across wide stretches of the South Kawishiwi River through small waves whipped up by the wind. Becky Rom, a retired lawyer who leads the group, pointed to an inlet where the mining facility had proposed to suck in water for a processing plant. An outcropping of tall gray boulders in the distance, she said, is where the company had proposed to put a pile of scrap rock. Rom and others said they are worried that water could rinse off those exposed rocks, taking sulfides and heavy metals such as arsenic with it into the interconnected waterways. She, too, viewed Walz as an ally. “He knows what a special place this is,” she said. “He gets it all.”
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As governor, Walz met often with labor groups and environmentalists. He has been a frequent visitor to northern Minnesota, to go canoeing in the Boundary Waters and to stop in meeting halls and glad-hand with union leaders who said they considered the governor, who grew up in small-town Nebraska, one of their own. Rom, the environmental advocate, said working with Walz was different than with previous Gov. Mark Dayton, who in 2016 denied Twin Metals access to state lands to conduct more environmental research. The decision infuriated local union members.
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I admit. I have not followed this debate so am just posting this.
= new reply since forum marked as read
