"In due course." That's the imperious response from the Trump administration when asked again this week when it will release scientific information gathered during an aborted review of copper mining's impact on land adjacent to the beloved Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA).
A controversial May 15 federal decision to renew two mining leases blocked by former President Barack Obama's administration underscores the troubling questions about transparency raised by Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., other members of Congress, and the Star Tribune Editorial Board. If the review, which was launched by the outgoing Obama administration and abruptly halted last fall by the Trump administration, actually supported that copper extraction can be done responsibly, why not release the science? The review was halted 20 months into a 24-month process.
The May 15 decision to renew the two mineral leases sought by the Chilean-owned Twin Metals Minnesota sweeps away a significant hurdle the project faced. The proposed mine would not be in the BWCA, but would be in its watershed — putting the pristine waters at risk of acid runoff or other pollution. While Twin Metals still must undergo state permitting and likely remains years away from completion, the Trump administration's refusal to release the key data from the review creates doubts about whether politics, rather than science, cleared the path forward.
Even high-profile backers of the Twin Metals project, such as Minnesota Republican U.S. Reps. Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber, should recognize how the perception of secrecy jeopardizes public confidence in the entire approval process. That's not helpful for Twin Metals or other mining projects.
The administration's obstinance is even more alarming given McCollum's forceful advocacy and the "grave concerns" voiced in a May 1 letter by U.S. Forest Service retirees about pollution and other risks to the BWCA.
McCollum, who represents the state's Fourth District, has sent two strongly worded letters to the administration demanding review data. In congressional hearings, she's hammered Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for breaking his 2017 promise to provide this information.
Yet the Trump administration continues to brazenly blow off its congressional-oversight obligations. And as its May 15 lease decision showed, it gave little heed to the remarkable letter signed by about three dozen Forest Service employees, the very people with the expertise to accurately assess mining's risks to the BWCA.
Clearly, McCollum needs stronger backup from her colleagues, particularly from Minnesota's delegation. It shouldn't have taken an editorial writer's inquiry to apparently prompt Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith to send a letter on Thursday calling for the data's release. While the senators previously have weighed on other Twin Metals matters, Minnesotans would be well-served if Klobuchar and Smith became higher-profile advocates for transparency and joined McCollum in other protective efforts. For example, McCollum is pursuing legislative remedies to require completion of the halted study and commission a report from the independent National Academy of Sciences on Twin Metals' impact on the BWCA watershed.
