CamKramerPhoto

The U.S. Senate just voted to pollute one of Minnesota’s most beloved places: the Boundary Waters. Let’s be clear why: more money for billionaires. Twin Metals and its parent companies are mega-corporations owned by a billionaire family based in Chile. They have a long track record of pollution and environmental devastation, and despite their assurances that this mining is “safe,” decades of research show otherwise. Twin Metals would bring fewer than 750 jobs to the region, with most of its operations being autonomous and remote, but it risks thousands of jobs in tourism and hospitality. The BWCA is the most visited wilderness in America, attracting almost 150,000 tourists and over $80 million in annual spending to the region. This won’t bring long-term prosperity. It will cost us millions in healthcare and environmental cleanup. Mining can be done right, only in the right places. This is the wrong type of mine, in the wrong place. All watersheds are connected. What happens in one place harms another, and pollution near the BWCA will migrate into the BWCA and the surrounding watershed. Republicans are in the pockets of big corporations that want to threaten our Minnesota heritage and one of the most pristine environments in the nation. We must take back the U.S. House and overturn this reckless policy.