WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 214-208 to allow mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on Minnesota’s Canada border. The vote followed party lines, reflecting the Trump priority of industrialization over the environment. The bill now goes to the Senate. The core arguments:
> Pete Stauber, elected from Minnesota’s Range, who sponsored the bill, argued that the nation needs to exploit the Duluth Complex, the world’s largest untapped copper-nickel deposit, rather rely on China and other adversarial sources for critical metals.
> Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters, said House Republicans were sacrificing America’s most visited wilderness for the benefit of a Chilean company that sends its concentrates to China.
> Kelly Morrison, elected from Minneapolis west suburbs, said that mining “will permanently allow toxic copper sulfide into the watershed of the Boundary Waters literally forever.”
How the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations voted:
To allow Boundary Waters mining
> Tom Emmer, R-Mn6 (north suburbs)
> Brad Finstad, R-Mn1 (southern counties)
> Michelle Fischbach, R-Mn7 (rural west)
> Pete Stauber, R-Mn8 (Iron Range)
—
> Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wi5 (Ckyman)
> Glen Grothman, R-Wi6 (Campbellsport)
> Bryan Steil, R-Wi1 (Janesville)
> Tom Tiffany, R-Wi7 (Hazelburst)
> Tony Wied, R-Wi8 (DePere)
>Derrick Van Orden, R-Wi3 (Prairie du Chien)
Against
> Angie Craig, D-Mn2 (south suburbs)
> Betty McCollum, D-Mn4 (St. Paul)
> Kelly Morrison, D-Mn3 (west suburbs)
> Ilhan Omar, D-Mn5 (Minneapolis)
—
> Gwen Moore, D-Wi4 (Milwaukee)
> Mark Pocan, D-Wi2 (Madison)