Trump’s inevitable threat to the BWCA
Back in March the Trump administration released, among the plethora of executive orders that it’s barfing up more or less continuously, presumably to see which ones can get through the courts among other things, a directive about mining.
(On March 20) President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production,” which puts America’s public lands, including protected, special places, at immediate risk of development from mining…
“Under the guise of national security, the Trump Administration has taken its next step toward dismantling vital protections for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and its watershed. By taking the extreme step of weaponizing Cold War-era powers to prioritize mining on all public lands – which includes federally designated Wilderness Areas, national forests, national parks, wildlife refuges, and more – the administration has thoroughly demonstrated its commitment to sacrificing America’s public lands for corporate gain,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters.
(Save the Boundary Waters)
I found a couple of wonky things, here and here, that provide detail. If you do decide to peruse them (they’re not from a progressive environmentalist perspective) you may want to power-slam a big, caffeine-laden latte beforehand.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) has introduced legislation to protect the BWCA from this odious crap. But it won’t pass.
The reason that I looked into this this morning is that I was expecting to find news of one or more lawsuits to block it. Apparently that hasn’t happened yet. Advocacy organizations may be waiting to see what the mining greedheads actually try to do, first. I didn’t see anything to indicate that mining multinationals are rushing into action on this, either. They may be wary of legal challenges shutting things down again if they do start throwing good money after bad. Hopefully that’s it.
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