Momentum for protection

Unintended consequences can be a bitch. Just ask Rep. Pete Stauber.
Despite the congressman’s latest hysterical outbursts against Gov. Tim Walz over the governor’s recent executive order putting a pause on state agency involvement in work advancing any copper-nickel mine proposals near the Boundary Waters, the order is, in fact, one of at least two significant consequences from Stauber’s own actions.
As widely reported back in April, Stauber engineered passage in Congress of a legally questionable resolution that overturned the 20-year mining ban in the upper Rainy River watershed. It’s looking increasingly like a Pyrrhic victory, one that, among other things, led directly to Walz’s executive order last week.
To be sure, the executive order is more symbolic than meaningful. The order only impacts the Twin Metals proposal, which is at least a decade away if everything goes right for the company. They have yet to present a mine plan for state agencies to even consider and a lawsuit over the state’s nonferrous mining rules remains to be resolved.
The executive order, by state law, expires no later than early April of next year. In practical effect, the order is almost meaningless, except in one regard.
Walz’s action, which includes directing the Department of Natural Resources to develop legislative language for permanent protection of the upper Rainy River watershed builds on the political momentum in favor of protecting the pristine watershed, which flows directly into the heart of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
That political momentum isn’t confined to Minnesota. As we report this week from our exclusive interview with New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, Stauber’s misuse of the Congressional Review Act, under which Congress ostensibly rescinded the 20-year mining ban, demonstrated to a broad coalition of Americans who support protection of our public lands the importance of permanent protection of the upper Rainy watershed.
As Sen. Heinrich noted, that coalition spans the political spectrum, from MAGA Republicans to progressive Democrats, who all recognize that our public lands are one of America’s most cherished legacies. They know that the American people have always had to fight to protect these lands from corporate interests and their minions in Congress who would seek to exploit our public birthright for private profit.
Stauber is clearly one of those minions. Yet advocates of protection can take solace in the fact that Stauber’s ham-handed efforts to aid the foreign billionaires behind Antofagasta and the proposed Twin Metals mine, have focused the nation’s attention on the Boundary Waters and highlighted the threat it faces from those who would put the region at risk. That’s one reason why members of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters returned from Washington following last April’s vote in the U.S. Senate energized rather than downtrodden.
It took intense pressure from the Trump White House to eke out a 50-49 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate. Without that arm-twisting, Sen. Heinrich said Stauber’s measure wouldn’t have passed. That shows where the momentum lies.
Sen. Heinrich, a veteran of public land battles, said he’s seen this same kind of political dynamic at work many times in battles over the future of public lands, and he believes the fight to protect the upper Rainy River watershed is in a good place. There’s now a broad national constituency that has learned about the BWCAW, how it protects one of the most unique landscapes in North America, and how it fits in with the larger system of public land protection in the U.S.
And Rep. Stauber has become the face of the threat to the Boundary Waters. Yet rather than boosting the prospects for copper-nickel mining upstream of the BWCAW, Sen. Heinrich believes Stauber’s ill-considered resolution may ultimately prove to be the pivot point that gets a law, or laws, permanently protecting the upper Rainy River watershed over the finish line.
That could be why Stauber was so incensed by Gov. Walz’s order last week. While the order’s practical effect is limited, Walz placed an important marker on the political stage, and provides a space for the momentum for protection to build. Polls consistently show overwhelming public support in Minnesota, even in northeastern Minnesota, for protecting the Boundary Waters from the polluting impact of a sulfide-based mine. By finally coming out publicly for protection, and doing so in direct response to Stauber’s overreach, Walz isn’t defying public opinion— he’s reading it correctly.
That’s part of the reason that the GOP reaction to the measure was so over-the-top. They’re clearly hoping to stoke an emotional response from voters in our region. The last thing they want is a thoughtful debate about the tradeoffs associated with the Twin Metals project— the kind of debate that could turn the current political momentum for protection into real legislation.