…the Obama administration misled Congress while acting in the interests of unnamed “activists” by initiating a bad faith environmental review designed to reach a predetermined outcome and by denying two noncontroversial leases, preventing responsible mining in an area twice authorized by Congress for such activity. In contrast, the Trump Administration acted based on policy merits to overturn the politically motivated Obama land grab.
Excerpts from a report by Western Congressional Caucus
…Members of the Western Caucus led two efforts urging further investigation of an Obama administration scandal-plagued land grab in northern Minnesota.
The first effort was a FOIA request sent to the Department of the Interior seeking all documents and communications involving federal agency employees and external organizations (including environmental and conservation groups) relating to two lease denials and a mineral withdrawal in northern Minnesota imposed by the Obama administration.
The second letter sent to the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman TJ Cox urging investigation of this matter.
These investigative requests are in response to recently-disclosed findings that the Obama administration misled Congress while acting in the interests of unnamed “activists” by initiating a bad faith environmental review designed to reach a predetermined outcome and by denying two noncontroversial leases, preventing responsible mining in an area twice authorized by Congress for such activity. In contrast, the Trump Administration acted based on policy merits to overturn the politically motivated Obama land grab.
Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal recently reported on emails obtained from Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN) to then then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack which stated: “Trump will reverse this. When you guys leave and are out talking about a job message for rural America, I will be left with the mess and dealing with the actual jobs. But you guys sure got a good story in the New York Times. It should have been handled through the normal process. It wasn’t… I am not for or against this project but I just wanted a fair process based on science that told us the truth. That is not how this feels.”
Signatories include: House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Republican Rob Bishop (UT-01), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Republican Louie Gohmert (TX-01), Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals Ranking Republican Paul Gosar (AZ-04) and U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08).
In the waning days of the Obama Administration, federal land management agencies took several actions that would decimate local economies, stifle job creation and cause significant harm to K-12 education in northern Minnesota.
Specifically, the Obama Administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) inappropriately rejected Twin Metals Minnesota’s application to renew two hard rock mineral leases in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest – leases that were signed in 1966 and renewed without controversy in 1989 and 2004.
In conjunction with cancelling these leases, on January 19th, 2017, the day before President Trump was sworn in, the previous administration published a 234,328-acre federal mineral withdrawal application in the Federal Register, to restrict for a 20-year moratorium, lands within the Superior National Forest in Northern Minnesota.
This action immediately placed this vast area off limits to future mineral leasing, exploration and potential development for two years while a 20-year withdrawal was being considered. The total withdrawal application boundary spanned approximately 425,000 acres and included 95,000 acres of state school trust fund lands.
The Western Caucus has played a key role in correcting these injustices. In June of 2017, Reps. Paul Gosar, Tom Emmer and Bruce Westerman toured several mining operations, held a roundtable and visited the proposed federal withdrawal area. The comments they heard on the ground from American families, businesses and individuals who want good-paying jobs and support mining projects in the area led to a Congressional effort to overturn the Obama administration’s land grab.
On November 30, 2017, the House passed H.R. 3905, the “Minnesota’s Economic Rights in the Superior National Forest Act” which was introduced by Rep. Tom Emmer and cosponsored by numerous members of the Western Caucus. This bill’s primary purpose was to overturn the Obama Administration’s withdrawal in the Superior National Forest and reinstate the two leases that were arbitrarily cancelled. In June of 2019, Rep. Stauber organized a follow-up mining tour and briefings for Western Caucus on this issue. Rep. Stauber has also led multiple initiatives to prevent Democratic Members from imposing unnecessary riders that would undermine these important projects and reinstate the political policies of the Obama administration.
In September of 2018, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it had canceled the Obama administration’s application for the Superior National Forest mineral withdrawal. In May of 2019, the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior renewed two Twin Metals Minnesota LLC-held hardrock mineral leases located on the Superior National Forest in Northern Minnesota that were cancelled by the Obama administration to appease anti-mining extremists.
Please watch the following video to hear the voices of locals impacted by the Obama mineral withdrawal
You read see more about this issue by clicking here
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