Stauber Statement Blasting Biden Administration’s Latest Anti-Mining Action

June 23, 2022
Press Release

Congressman Pete Stauber (MN-08) released the following statement on the Biden Administration's latest action to ban mining in northern Minnesota after the U.S. Forest Service today released a politicized environmental assessment recommending a region-wide mining ban on minerals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum-group elements in the Superior National Forest.

"Biden and his fellow elitist Democrats in Washington and St. Paul are denying my constituents of our way of life," said Congressman Stauber. "Joe Biden has made his position clear: he'd rather have foreign and child slave labor produce minerals instead of American union miners working to deliver Minnesota's mineral wealth to the nation and world using the best environmental and labor standards. Time after time, he chooses the wealthy, elite, keep-it-in-the-ground lobby over our workers. Americans are seeing the results of Joe Biden's devastating policies and they have had enough.

"After I inquired this afternoon, the Forest Service confirmed that taconite mining is also prohibited under the Biden Administration's plan. This is a new low, even for this Administration. Under this action by Biden, we would not be able to develop taconite in the withdrawal region of the Superior National Forest, like northern Minnesotans have been doing safely for the last 130 years.

"Instead of reviewing the project-specific proposal offered by Twin Metals, the Biden Administration decided to rely on a political study to find the end result they want: to permanently ban mining in northern Minnesota. Rest assured, I will fight this on behalf of northern Minnesotans, who deserve high-quality mining jobs."

Added House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.),"Just when you think the Biden administration's energy 'plan' can't get any worse, they somehow find a way. After years of touting battery storage, electric vehicles, solar panels, and other renewables as the only way forward, this administration is simultaneously cutting off the very resources on which that renewable energy depends. They can't have it both ways. Either we invest in cleaner, safer energy and minerals here at home, or we depend on it from slave labor and environmentally damaging sources overseas. I would say I can't believe the Biden administration would be so shortsighted, but at this point it's what I've come to expect from their attempts at energy policy. This is bad for Minnesota, bad for clean energy, and bad for Americans, particularly at a time when inflation is already through the roof. I hope they see the error of their ways, immediately reverse this unscientific decision, and allow safe, reliable mineral extraction in the Duluth Complex."

Background on the Twin Metals project and President Biden and his allies' attempts to ban mining in northern Minnesota:

  • Taconite from northern Minnesota accounts for 80% of all steel in the United States. The whole country needs our steel resources.
  • The Duluth Complex contains 95% of America's nickel, 88% of our cobalt, 75% of our platinum, and more than one-third of our copper. Meanwhile, the United States remains significantly import-reliant for all these minerals and more.
  • Twin Metals Minnesota plans to build a 21st-century underground mine with union labor to extract the copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum-group elements, and more we need for our daily life.
  • The proposed mine is in an industrial, working region of the Superior National Forest, where mining is literally a desired condition.
  • Twin Metals Minnesota signed a project labor agreement with the Iron Range Building Construction Trades, committing to high-wage union labor for the project, which will equal the construction hours of U.S. Bank Stadium.
  • On January 26, 2022, President Biden's Department of the Interior (DOI) revoked existing long-held federal leases for Twin Metals Minnesota to mine in the Superior National Forest.
  • On May 24, Congressional Democrats held a hearing on legislation pushed by the green lobby that would permanently ban mining in the Superior National Forest, where mining is a desired condition.