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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Rep. Rick Nolan talks with Ely-area voters

Mining, Trump part of conversation

Keith Vandervort
Posted 4/19/17

ELY – More than 60 Ely-area residents packed a classroom at Vermilion Community College last week to meet with U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan in a lively town hall meeting that went for nearly two …

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Rep. Rick Nolan talks with Ely-area voters

Mining, Trump part of conversation

Posted

ELY – More than 60 Ely-area residents packed a classroom at Vermilion Community College last week to meet with U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan in a lively town hall meeting that went for nearly two hours.

“This is a critically-important time for us,” Nolan said in his opening remarks. “With the budgets that have been submitted by the President for the remainder of 2017 and 2018, with the proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act and with a whole lot of administrative and agency changes taking place, there are a lot of people with a lot of concerns.”

Nolan fielded a total of 20 questions, ranging from mining to President Trump. Boundary Waters permitting was first on the docket as a resident asked why Congress hasn’t created a special permit for local residents to use the wilderness.

“It would certainly make sense from a common sense point of view,” said Nolan, “but I have a funny feeling that the federal courts would step in and say it is a violation of the equal protection law.”

More than one questioner queried the Congressman over mental health disabilities and what he is doing to make sure those needs are being met.

“The repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which I am opposed to, would take away a lot of the funding for mental health services,” he said. “I am also an advocate for legislation outside of the ACA to provide more funding for mental health services.”

Mining issues

Mining and the environment also generated questions. “You say the monitoring and enforcement of the process will be vigorous,” commented one participant. “However, we have a President who wants to gut environmental regulations, majorities are hell-bent on weakening regulatory agencies. Is this new political reality shifting your position on copper-nickel mining?”

Nolan responded, “The narrative, back in the 1970s was that we can’t have environmental rules and regulations because nobody will be able to do business. Some of us, myself included, said that is not true, and we can do both. In fact, we have the brains. We have the technology. We certainly have the will and the need.

“But, the narrative has changed. Now we have a political body that says just the opposite. We can’t have business and industry because we won’t have an environment. I’m the same old guy that I used to be. We have more technology and we have more knowledge. And we certainly have the need. If you say we should allow the mining industry to go on willy-nilly and do whatever they want, I’m against that. If you follow my statements, I have always said I believe in the importance of mining and I believe in the importance of the environment. And I believe we have the ability to do both. And to do both of them we must.”

Nolan recounted his environmental efforts in Congress, including his work get $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration plan.

“What are you doing to push the copper-nickel mining projects along and get more jobs up here?” asked another town hall attendee.

“With regard to jobs, we are going to start on Highway 169. We are putting a new bridge in the quad cities. And there are probably 300-400 jobs there over a period of several years,” he said.

“One of the things on PolyMet and legislation I learned, over the years, is that in criminal justice, justice delayed is justice denied. The same thing applies in dealing with the government. People are entitled to have a reasonable decision-making process. All those agencies have to weigh in on the project, and when multiple people are responsible for the decision-making, no one is in charge.” He said he assumed the responsibility of taking charge, and for the past several years, he has been conducting inter-agency meetings to help move the process along. “I didn’t tell them what to do, I told them they have to make a decision and not let the project drag on,” he said.

“I know there is dispute and dissension in the community with regard to the proposed land withdrawals, and I want you to know that I for one intend to do nothing to harm the waters of the Boundary Waters, or the Rainy or the Great Lakes watersheds or the Mississippi watershed. All these waters are of great and equal importance to us.

“Having said that, everyone deserves the right to reserve final judgment on any project. I am a big believer in mining. It is not only important to Ely and the Range, it is important to Minnesota and to our national security and national economy,” he said.

He noted that modern agricultural practices are responsible for many polluted water tables, lakes and streams. ”We’re not going to suggest that we do away with agriculture, because then we would all starve to death,” he said. “Agriculture is a big part of our economic success. We have something we have to fix. We’re not going to outlaw agriculture any more than we are going to outlaw mining or anything else. We’re going to take each thing, one case at a time. If you can do it and do it right, God bless you. I’m a mining advocate and I don’t apologize for it.”

Another constituent asked, “Why did you ask the Trump administration and the Forest Service and the BLM to shut down this valuable study when you know destructive copper mining can be?”

Nolan responded, “I stand by everything I said in that letter, but it is my view that if you are going to study what the implications are and you don’t even know yet what all the technologies are, my experience is that mining was never done right, municipal waste treatment facilities were never done right, manufacturing was never done right, arguably nothing was done right until we discovered how to do it right. By just programmatically denying an opportunity to business and industry and mining, in this case, to see what they can come up with is the most common sense and reasonable approach. Business and industry is pretty creative if you come up with the standard that they have to comply with. We’re talking about a way of life and an essential element. I guess that we will just have to respectfully disagree.”

President Trump

Nolan suggested that the new president has a way to go in understanding the process in Washington. “The President made the statement that he would tell the Congress what they can do, how much they can spend and what they can spend it on,” he said. “My guess is that he forgot to take government or poli-sci courses, because the Congress makes those decisions. It remains to be seen what he will be able to get away with. It may come as a surprise to many of you but there is a great deal more bipartisan cooperation in the Congress than is apparent. I think the President has a few lessons to learn here. I am reasonably confident that we’re not going to let him get away with all the things that he wants to do.”

Running for governor

“What are the odds of you running for governor?

Nolan responded, “I don’t know what the odds are, probably not good. There is a significant enough amount of people who have asked me to consider it, and out of respect for them, that is what I’m doing. I hope to finalize a decision in that regard, and I’m driven by only one primary consideration and that is where I think I can do the most good for Minnesota. That is not as easy to resolve as one might think. As long as I have my wits about me, and as long as I can come into a room like this and be energized by the presence of people who are particularly as concerned about what we can all do together to make life better, that’s what drives me and motivates me. When the day comes and I can’t walk into a room like this and feel that energy, it’s time for me to retire. Right now, I feel better prepared to serve than in any point in my life.”