REGIONAL—An amendment approved in the U.S. House Rules Committee last week would require consultation with the Secretary of Defense as part of the environmental review of mining proposals, or any other proposal that has the potential to increase the availability of “strategic or critical” materials for the national defense stockpile.
The amendment, by Eighth District Rep. Pete Stauber, was one of five he attempted to attach to the must-pass National Defense Authorization measure, which is currently working its way through Congress. Stauber’s attempt to attach his other four amendments, including one that would have rescinded the current mineral withdrawal and prohibited future withdrawals affecting a portion of the Superior National Forest upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, failed to pass the GOP-led committee.
The national defense stockpile, founded in the 1940s in the wake of World War II is a large reserve of a variety of materials, including minerals, of strategic value to the country’s defense. Materials housed as part of the stockpile are typically purchased from a variety of sources, including foreign countries, at times when commodities are relatively inexpensive.
It’s not clear how the measure passed by the committee would actually impact environmental review of a mining proposal, although it appears designed to give military officials greater influence over mining projects. Environmental critics of the measure noted, however, that the amendment would have the effect of requiring consultation with the Defense Department for virtually any mining project, something that hasn’t been required in the past.
“Every mine results in the increase of availability of what is being mined,” noted Becky Rom, with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. “This means that Interior and Agriculture, will now have the Secretary of Defense consulting on every mine review,” she said. “There are no good reasons for this amendment.”
The measure is consistent, however, with efforts by Rep. Stauber to advance the interests of Antofagasta, a Chilean-based mining corporation that is seeking to build a sulfide-based copper-nickel mine upstream of the BWCAW. That project is on hold indefinitely in the wake of a decision by the Biden administration to rescind permits for the project. The administration’s legal counsel concluded that the permits were illegally reissued by the Trump administration after the Obama administration allowed the two leases to expire shortly before Trump took office.
The Biden administration subsequently issued a 20-year ban on new mineral leasing within a 225,000-acre portion of the Superior National Forest, including the area that Antofagasta and their U.S. subsidiary Twin Metals, hopes to mine.
Stauber’s actions have frustrated opponents of the mine, who argue that its potential impact to the Boundary Waters could significantly undermine a vibrant local economy based on outdoor recreation. They cite a peer-reviewed Harvard study that concluded that the proposed mine would lead to fewer jobs and less local income within just a few years than under the current economic trajectory.
“While it’s clear that Rep. Stauber is laser focused on opening up the headwaters of the Boundary Waters to toxic mining, his sneaky attack on America’s most visited wilderness almost completely failed this week,” said Alex Falconer, director of the Boundary Waters Action Fund. “Thankfully only one of them was voted on. Now it’s up to the Senate to decide if these anti-wilderness poison pills sink or swim.”