Joe Biden continues to fulfill his campaign promises to destroy American energy independence. The administration’s Department of the Interior has blocked the development of a major nickel and cobalt mine in northern Minnesota. The “Twin Metals Project” would have produced minerals in the Duluth Complex that lies inside the Superior National Forest. The complex holds 95% of America’s nickel and 88% of domestic cobalt reserves.
The project is now dead on arrival for the foreseeable future due to the administration’s decision to withdraw almost a quarter-million acres of the Superior National Forest from eligibility for mining operations. The decision to block the development of the nearly $3 billion mine was attributed to concerns about impacts on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness inside the national forest.
Biden Interior Department Blocks Minnesota Twin Metals Mining Project In Big Win For Beijing https://t.co/OczXyeoIkk
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) January 27, 2023
In a press release, Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said, “The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans. Protecting a place like Boundary Waters is key to supporting the health of the watershed and its surrounding wildlife, upholding our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities, and boosting the local recreation economy.”
The closure of more American resource development will leave the federal government even more reliant on replacement sources in Canada.
Debra Struhsacker, a mining and environmental policy expert, who has testified before Congress five times, said, “It is truly unfortunate that at a time when there is widespread recognition that the U.S. urgently needs the copper, nickel, and cobalt in the Twin Metals mineral deposit to help achieve the nation’s clean energy objectives, that this world-class deposit is now off-limits for at least two decades.”
A report from the left-leaning Brookings Institute indicates communist China could gain the most from Biden’s policies shutting down American resource production.
According to Brookings, nearly 70% of global cobalt production comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which relies on child labor and forces workers to endure inhuman conditions. The Chinese have invested more than any other nation in Congolese mining.
China is investing heavily in Indonesian mining, where over 30% of the world’s nickel is produced. China has been working for several years to firm up its presence in the East Asian island country to expand its communist sphere of influence.
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) represents the northern Minnesota district where the Twin Metals Project had been planned. He called the decision to doom the project “an attack on our way of life.”
“Unfortunately, this harm to our country and our future has become the norm, as this President’s goal is to put America last,” he added.
