Make no mistake about it, the Iron Range knows this is an attack on mining and
it will have no more of it. The region and its miners, laborers, businesses,
residents — everyone here — is committed to meeting and exceeding the standards
of the federal government’s environmental reviews. We are not here to destroy
the land we use everyday.
We have a deep pride in our history of mining. We helped the United States win
wars over dictators, the iron ore leaving here by train helps fuel the economy
of Duluth and Two Harbors. It builds safe, reliable infrastructure from U.S.-made
steel, and the minerals this region wants to mine will provide for the tech boom
in Silicon Valley. (Mesabi Daily News Editorial)
The Iron Range and its rich history of mining is in a fight for its future, and the deck is stacked against it.
There’s overreaching actions taken by a lame duck administration, there’s delays forced by lawsuit after lawsuit from deep-pocketed environmental groups, and there’s scare tactics to steer popular opinion against the region’s way of life. Enough is enough: It ends here. It started here, and the fight will end here.
The Iron Range is done being paraded around in the three-ring circus of hearings, resolutions and comment periods, which are really nothing more than putting the everyday Iron Ranger on trial by a jury of its uniformed peers.
At 4 p.m. today at Virginia Carpenters Union Hall, the Iron Range unifies. Labor groups, businesses, politicians and unions — and supporters in the Twin Cities — are standing up and saying we’re done. They’re calling for a boycott of a Forest Service hearing on July 18 in St. Paul over a federal land withdrawal, and instead will protect the Range’s way of life — on the Iron Range — July 25 in Virginia.
This issue goes beyond the land withdrawal. It’s bigger than copper-nickel mining. This is all mining. It’s sulfate standards and mercury standards. It’s the fact the 234,000 acres potentially withdrawn from mining for 20 years would block expansion of Northshore in Babbitt — a traditional taconite mine.
Make no mistake about it, the Iron Range knows this is an attack on mining and it will have no more of it.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.virginiamn.com/opinion/editorials/our-views-enough-already-it-ends-in-virginia/article_0931ec26-5baf-11e7-97dc-579813b3a7fb.html