CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH TODD GROTEWOHL, ‘PROTECT THE PORKIES’
CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH STATE REP DAVE PRESTIN, R-CEDAR RIVER
It was on March 26th that Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that the Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved $50 million for the development of the Copperwood Mine in the western Upper Peninsula.
On that day, the governor highlighted “380 high-wage, family sustaining jobs” that would “help supply copper material critical to the mobility and clean tech industries, bringing the supply chain home to Michigan.”
The Highland Copper project that promised to inject $15 million every year in tax revenue to the region has not moved forward, And state representative Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River) says he knows why the $50 million was not transferred in the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this summer.
“What’s happening with Copperwood is what happens with a lot of these projects: they get highjacked by the environmental community, nationally,” Prestin told RRN News. “We’re not even talking about major numbers within the U.P. These representatives are getting bombarded with “Stop the Mine” because there’s been a Call to Action nationally. They’re receiving E-Mails from across the country. The last time I heard, there were over 45,000 E-Mails sent in, and almost none from the U.P.”
Work on this site has been on-going since 2018, when exploritory drilling was done and a feasability study was conducted. It has drawn support from many local units of government, both township and county, the MEDC, the Whitmer Administration, as well as the economic development powerhouse Invest U.P.
Prestin says the jobs in the western UP are “desperately needed”, and he remains “confident” that this project will ultimately move forward.
But Tom Grotewohl, an anti-mining activist who founded the group “Protect The Porkies”, says he is pleased to see the project being scrutinized.
Grotewohl adds that his group would oppose any development in that area, not just mines.
“We would oppose any industrial activity there, even if it were a Wal-Mart,” Grotewohl told RRN News. “We’re talking about next door to Lake Superior, right next door to the North Country Trail, very near to the Black River Harbor, right next to the Porcupine Mountains State Park. Unfortunately, mines do have a history of contaminating water, and this is a water-rich environment. This is an area that is currently undeveloped. There’s no electrical grid. There’s no cell service. It simply isn’t suitable for any industrial activity. This is not an environmentalist perspective, it’s common sense.”
We asked Grotewohl: what about the jobs that people need in that part of the Upper Peninsula?
“The Upper Peninsula is impoverished because it built itself upon boom-and-bust industries like mining,” Grotewohl said, and then pointed to a study from a former Barack Obama economic advisor’s study. “Eighty-nine percent of all copper sulfide mines lead to a loss of income for the area. People would make some money for a few years, but it tends to be for only a few years and then the negative side outweighs the positive the longer a mine is running. And it’s a Canadian company that would be shipping Michigan copper out of Michigan.”
The group “Protect The Porkies” is planning a September 14th event in the western UP where members of local Native American Tribes will lead the Gichigaming Water Walk, where people will walk the 31 miles from the Montreal River at the Michigan/Wisconsin border (in the town of Ironwood), to the shore of Gichigami (Lake Superior), in the Presque Isle Scenic Area of the Porcupine Mountains.
—Copperwood Site photo from 2018 courtesy of Michigan DNR
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