WASHINGTON — Provisions in proposed federal legislation would limit enforcement of a mining ban in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and return a pair of mineral leases to a company hoping to open a copper-nickel mine.
The language, included in the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of an appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, would bar any money from being spent to enforce the 20-year moratorium on hard-rock mining on 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest and reinstate two key mineral leases to company Twin Metals.
It comes even as Trump officials say they are taking steps to reverse the mineral withdrawal and reinstate the leases through an administrative process, which requires a public notice and comment period but no congressional approval.
The Trump administration announced June 11 its plans to take such steps, a day after Republicans struck language from the massive spending and tax bill that would have ended the withdrawal and returned the leases.
Asked if the legislative route would be faster or less prone to legal challenges than the Trump administration’s path, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota, said all possibilities were being considered.
“After Republicans took back the White House and Congress this past fall, I have maintained that all options are on the table to restore key leases and reverse the Biden administration’s harmful, politically motivated, and illegal mineral withdrawal in the Superior National Forest,” the congressman from Hermantown, Minnesota, said in an emailed statement. “I will pursue every avenue available to get this done quickly and decisively.”
The House Committee on Appropriations passed the bill July 24, the same day that the Senate Committee on Appropriations passed its Senate companion. However, the Senate version does not include language related to Twin Metal’s mineral leases or the mineral withdrawal.
Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, said he’s “very concerned” the language in the appropriations bill could make it into law.
“The assault is coming from really all branches of government,” Knopf said.
Unlike administrative actions, which can be reversed by a future president, laws passed by Congress would require another act of Congress to change.
The administrative back-and-forth on Twin Metals’ federal leases and the mineral withdrawal has been going on for more than eight years.
They were first enacted in the final days of the Obama administration. The first Trump administration then reversed those moves, but the Biden administration later reinstated them.
The Biden administration also released an accompanying U.S. Forest Service study that said hard-rock mining in the Rainy River Watershed could pose an environmental threat to the BWCAW, particularly for water quality, if the mineral withdrawal was not enacted and mining projects were allowed to proceed.
Twin Metals, owned by Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, is hoping to build a large underground copper-nickel mine and dry-stacked tailings storage facility near Ely, Minnesota, and along Birch Lake, within the Rainy River Watershed and 5 miles from the BWCAW.
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But that would not be possible if the Biden administration’s actions were to stand.
In a statement, Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said the company remained “committed to pursuing the responsible development of the copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals resources in northeast Minnesota.”
“Twin Metals Minnesota appreciates the champions in Congress that recognize the significance of the domestic mineral resources that are available in northeast Minnesota, which are urgently needed to accomplish our nation’s energy independence, job creation and national security goals,” Graul said.
Lawmakers seek answers
In a July 18 letter to Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Democratic representatives from Minnesota — Betty McCollum, Angie Craig, Ilhan Omar and Kelly Morrison — urged the cabinet members to set up a meeting with them or respond to their list of questions.
The letter was also signed by Jared Huffman, D-California, and Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.
The letter largely took aim at Rollins’s June 11 post on X, formerly Twitter, which announced the U.S. Forest Service would be “initiating the process” to reverse the withdrawal.
“After careful review, including extensive public input, the US Forest Service has enough information to know the withdrawal was never needed,” Rollins said in the post.
While there has been extensive public comment during the withdrawal’s shifting status over the last eight years, the second Trump administration has not yet sought public comments on reversing the mineral withdrawal’s latest iteration.
Rollins’ post also misspelled “Rainy River.”
“The people of Minnesota and Americans nationwide overwhelmingly support permanent protection for the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” the lawmakers wrote. “The use of an inaccurate tweet lacking substantive detail has generated confusion and concern among our constituents, who have already provided extensive public input in support of protecting the Boundary Waters through a mineral withdrawal.”
Luke Bishop, a spokesperson for McCollum, said the Trump administration acknowledged the letter and intends to send a response in the future.
USDA did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment.
The Department of the Interior said in an email that while it does “not comment on congressional correspondence through the media, the Department of the Interior takes all correspondence from Congress seriously and carefully reviews each matter. Should there be any updates on this topic, we will provide further information at the appropriate time.”
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