State Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk warned county commissioners in northeastern Minnesota that they would risk losing state money if they passed a resolution to ban copper mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA).
The issue erupted earlier this week after a Cook County commissioner proposed a nonbinding resolution backing DFL Gov. Mark Dayton’s opposition to copper mining in the sensitive wilderness area.
Commissioners quickly dropped the idea after local business leaders said they were told by Bakk and others that critical funds from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) could dry up if the board took an anti-mining stance.
The debate at the Cook County board meeting in Grand Marais, a region that relies on tourism and the wilderness area for much of its economy, laid bare the rough local politics of Minnesota’s Iron Range. It also underscored how businesses, citizens and local governments are being forced to choose sides in the increasingly bitter fight over mining and the future of the wildest and most scenic corner of the state.
“I don’t think we should run our government by extortion and coercion and bribery,” said Marco Good, who owns a small custom logging and timber business and supported debating the resolution.
Bakk, a powerful DFL legislator who represents the region and also serves on the board of the IRRRB, said he was merely being “helpful” in discouraging passage of a resolution that he thought would only antagonize area legislators.
[italics added] The serpent was being helpful to Eve. What is wrong with a party lacking the courage to do what they know is right? Courage? Judgment? Decency? Dignity?
Strib links to a pdf of the Cook County Board resolution online here. The County's homepage, here.