30 April 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to reverse the Biden administration’s mineral withdrawal, or ban, on new mining on 225,000 acres of federal land within the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness until 2043.
The Republican-controlled House voted 212-203 on Tuesday in favor of U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber’s H.R. 3195, the Superior National Forest Restoration Act. The vote was largely along party lines; however, two Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden, of Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, of Texas — joined Republicans in supporting the bill.
Stauber, a Republican from Hermantown who represents the 8th Congressional District, introduced the bill last year. It would reverse the mineral withdrawal, reissue key federal mineral leases to Twin Metals, limit environment and regulatory review of mine plans of operations within the Superior National Forest to 18 months and block judicial review of reissued leases or permits.
But with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, it’s unlikely to become law this session.
The bill now heads to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where no companion bill existed as of Tuesday. Even if the Senate takes up and passes Stauber’s bill, it would need the signature of President Joe Biden, who has already spoken in opposition.
In a statement of administration policy Monday, the Biden administration said it “strongly opposes this bill.”
In a news release after the vote, Stauber said the bill targets “obstacles put in place by the Biden Administration.”
“Today’s House passage of my Superior National Forest Restoration Act is great news for our state and nation,” Stauber said. “Instead of flat-out rejecting any mining project from developing the Duluth Complex located within the Superior National Forest, it is important to allow project-specific reviews that are based on the facts and science to take place.”
The Biden administration effectively killed Twin Metals’ plan to build an underground mine and tailings storage facility processing plant along Birch Lake, which flows into the BWCAW via the Kawishiwi River, by not renewing key mineral leases in January 2022 and then, a year later, enacting the mineral withdrawal.
Officials cited a U.S. Forest Service study released in 2022 that said hard-rock mining in the watershed could pollute the BWCAW.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-St. Paul, spoke in opposition to the bill earlier Tuesday, calling the bill an “unnecessary and harmful piece of legislation.”
“This bill ignores scientific consensus that is proven now … this would overturn all the public input, the overwhelming public input, in protecting this unique watershed,” McCollum said. “And to make matters worse, it also strips away the judicial review … in favor of pro-mining policies, further silencing those who want this watershed protected by stripping away their rights to challenge these actions in court.”
The mineral withdrawal and rejection of Twin Metals leases were first enacted in the final days of the Obama administration. Those moves were then reversed by the Trump administration but later reinstated by the Biden administration.
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