TIMMER WRITES: Glencore wants the money from the mining, with the chumps [us] to be jobbed, jobbed, jobbed into holding the risks and left yodeling to the Swiss firm's deaf ear, after the ore's gone and disaster may be all that remains.

It's like the old in and out; Minnesota "gets pregnant" and the gent, Glencore, wanders off wishing all well, but vanished from responsibility. Glencore to prosper more, elsewhere, glad to have known you.

Saying it that way is not saying it as well as Timmer wrote, here.

A sampling below, opening where Timmer quotes from a duluthnewstribune.com item before explaining in terms any/all Iron Rangers have to comprehend - we, the rest of us, will not shoulder Glencore's and the Range's risks. They cannot simply elect a Stauber to play along with an Emmer and other short perspective politicians against the best long term interests of the environment and the best interests of the general statewide citizenry of Minnesota.

Ultimately, the DNR can add Glencore to the permit under a longstanding operating principle, Walz said. Glencore was not a majority shareholder when the DNR granted PolyMet a permit to mine and other permits last year. [But anybody who couldn’t see that Glencore has been in practical control of PolyMet for a long time is either blind or a fool.]

Walz said Glencore was not particularly warm to the idea of adding its name to the permit because the company said it could affect financing option in the eyes of banks and lenders. PolyMet still needs to raise almost $1 billion in project financing to build its facilities.

[...]

[...] Loosely translated, that means, Our bankers aren’t interested in the project if we have to be responsible for all the mayhem we may cause.

We’ve all known for a long time that PolyMet has never had a toilet to call its own. PolyMet is still penniless; if the mine is built, it will be because of Glencore and not Karin Housley.

Frankly, a promise by PolyMet to fix any messes it makes is worthless. Perhaps it’ll promise to pay off the national debt while it is at it. Both promises are equally likely to be fulfilled.

Really, Glencore is saying, Look, if you don’t make the citizens and the environment of the state the tail-end Charlies, this thing is not going to get done.

To which I would respond, Hallelujah, somebody is finally being honest.

[italics in original, embedded links omitted]

There's more, and readers here are made to link to Timmer's item to have links to follow, because it is only proper that reading Timmer's thinking is superior to reading the quote and moving on without the entire picture. Reading the full Timmer item and what he suggests via linking gives the meal, while excerpting gives a hint of the flavor. Again, Timmer, here.