Trump administration renews mining leases near Minnesota wilderness, reversing Obama

[highplainsdem]

Source: WaPo

The Trump administration moved Friday to renew leases for a copper and nickel mining operation on the border of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, reversing a decision made in the final weeks of Barack Obama’s tenure in office.

The action, made public in an Interior Department legal decision, marks a win for the Chilean mining firm belonging to the family of billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who rents a home to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in Washington.

The department and U.S. Forest Service had decided a year ago not to renew the leases while federal officials launched a formal review of the operation’s environmental impact. Reversing that outcome has been the subject of intense lobbying since President Trump took office. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with proponents of Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta PLC, shortly after taking office.

The two expired leases, which span 4,800 acres and date to 1966, lie on the southwest border of the 1.1 million-acre wilderness area. The federal government had been studying whether all mining activities in 234,000 acres abutting the wilderness should be barred for the next 20 years. The company applied to renew the leases in 2012.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/12/23/trump-administration-renews-mining-leases-near-minnesota-wilderness-area/

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Corrupt business as usual for the Trump family and administration.

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Rampant Cronyism.

[Botany]

2. Why try to protect this?

[IcyPeas]

3. He must have a list....

in front of him with absolutely everything Obama achieved and he is undoing it one-by-one.

I cannot stand that his is somehow allowed to happen. where are the checks and balances?

Can no one stop this evil vindictive childish asshole son of a bitch before it is too late?

[notdarkyet]

4. You echo my thoughts. Cant it be stopped? He gets sued for almost everything he does.

Maybe that’s all we can do.

[burrowowl]

5. Great depiction!

[bluestarone]

10. without a doubt

you are right!!!!!!

[Achilleaze]

6. How Kushy (R)

freaking republicans are a criminal enterprise selling off America's treasures to line their own crony pockets with money money money. Sick. Don't ever refer to the republicans as 'conservatives" - they are radical rip-off artistes.

[Mendocino]

7. RIP BWCA

My buddy lives in the watershed of the proposed sulfide mines. The waste will extend all the way to Hudson Bay. I'm going to the BWCA this summer. The area will never be the same again.

[Doitnow]

8. Another stinking move by one who gets his jollies by making others miserable. He really

enjoys doing just that. Somebody ought to make a cartoon with him wearing a dunce hat with large horns. Can't decide if he's stupid or evil. The result is the same.