The member of Congress who represents northeastern Minnesota has introduced a resolution that seeks to reverse a recent decision by the Biden administration to prohibit mining on federal land upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Rep. Pete Stauber has sponsored legislation as part of a process allowed under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act that disapproves of the executive action.
Stauber is a staunch supporter of mining companies seeking to open new copper-nickel mines in the region. If the resolution he introduced were to be approved by both the House and Senate, it would effectively end the 20-year moratorium.
“[Interior] Secretary [Deb] Haaland’s 225,000 acre ban on mining in the Superior National Forest qualifies as a trigger to this Congressional authority laid out in statute,” Stauber said. “Congress is exercising its authority to roll back this misguided ban and secure our domestic mineral supply chains. It is well past time for elected officials, not appointed bureaucrats, to dictate how and when America’s abundant resources and public lands are utilized.”
On Tuesday, Stauber also hosted a Congressional hearing in Mountain Iron, on Minnesota’s Iron Range. The hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which Stauber chairs, and featured five other Republican representatives from around the country on the committee.
Debating decisions
In January, Haaland announced an order withdrawing from mining activity a large swath of public lands, largely along the southern edge of the popular wilderness area. The maximum time allowed by law for such a withdrawal is twenty years, meaning the Boundary Waters could be protected until 2043.
“The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans. Protecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy,” Haaland said at the time.
The withdrawal came after several years of study, advocacy, and back-and-forth decisions by presidential administrations. The action was first proposed in 2016 by the Obama administration, reversed by the Trump administration, and ultimately restored by Biden. A two-year study was also conducted by the U.S. Forest Service to examine the risks posed by such mining in the sensitive Superior National Forest.
Stauber’s brief resolution lays out the legal authority for the move, and formally disapproves.
“[Resolved, t]hat Congress disapproves of the withdrawal by the Secretary of the Interior of approximately 225,504 acres of National Forest System lands in Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, Minnesota, from disposition under the United States mineral and geothermal leasing laws,” the resolution reads.
With Stauber’s Republican party in control of the House of Representatives, the resolution may have a chance of approval by that body. But, with both chambers required to approve the resolution and the Senate still narrowly controlled by Democrats, the short-term prospects for overturning the ban seem narrow.
Local hearing
At Wednesday’s hearing in Mountain Iron, Stauber said the Biden administration’s actions to protect the Boundary Waters, the environmental review and permitting process, and litigation is slowing down the development of new mines.
Stauber says that is unacceptable. “You know, mining is our past, our present, our future, and I can tell you our future is bright,” he said. Stauber also noted that legislation he authored to reduce environmental regulations for mines has been included in House Republicans’ recent legislation to cut federal programs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
Repeated themes at the hearing included “getting the federal government out of the way,” the need for metals for green technology, and the state and federal government’s high standards for mining.
Witnesses included a representative for Talon Metals, which is seeking to open a nickel mine southwest of Duluth, a Minneapolis-based geologic exploration company, and an Ely resort owner who supports mining. The latter, Joe Baltich of Northwind Lodge, in particular got attention for advocating for mining inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is prohibited by state and federal law.
“The Boundary Waters Act has a line in it … that the president in times of national need can override the entire Boundary Waters law,” Baltich said near the end of the hearing. “And that means that he can go five miles past my house and start drilling where the copper and nickel is right at the surface in Lake One and just start pounding, pecking at the rocks right there and doing whatever they need to do because we’re in a national emergency. So does it make more sense that our governor has a mine in place? So we’re ready to mine in, in case of a national emergency, wouldn’t it be better to have the infrastructure here? And now instead of waiting until, oh my God, we’re being invaded, we gotta go and start digging up rocks and wreck everything.”
Environmental advocates responded swiftly to the statement, pointing out that polls show up to 70 percent of Minnesotans oppose mining upstream of the Boundary Waters. They also say a peer-reviewed study by a Harvard economist predicted more jobs would be created by tourism over the next 20 years than a mine, if mining was blocked.
“If this is the type of witness Rep. Stauber brings before Congress to testify, there is no telling where he will stop,” said Becky Rom of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. “That’s why legislation to permanently protect this Wilderness forever is critical.”
More information:
- Stauber Introduces Legislation to Nullify Mineral Withdrawal in Northern Minnesota – Rep. Pete Stauber
- H. CON. RES. 34 – U.S. House of Representatives
- Stauber hosts mining congressional hearing in Mountain Iron – Duluth News Tribune
- Examining the Mineral Wealth of Northern Minnesota | Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee