Ingrid Lyons on unprecedented political move that threatens Minnesota's Boundary Waters

Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters, joined to talk about a renewed mining threat to the pristine wilderness area that encompasses 1.1 million acres in northern Minnesota. We start off with the unique landscape of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the new dilemma with a foreign mining company (Antofagasta/Twin Metals) wanting to mine upstream. Lyons explains the havoc that sulfide-ore mining wreaks on the region and the irony of branding it a "national security" project when the extracted minerals are destined for China. Next, how we got here: Republicans leveraged a legislative tool that previously had never been used to overturn a mineral withdrawal — the Congressional Review Act (CRA) — to undo a 20-year protection order put in place in 2023. Then Republicans in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House (with only one exception) passed the legislation and President Donald Trump signed it into law last week — essentially throwing out 675,000 public comments overwhelmingly against mining the area and years of scientific study pointing to its ill effects. Lastly, we try to understand the end game, because very little of this will benefit the U.S. or Minnesota — and maybe not even the mining company. Lyons addresses whether the project is even economically viable, noting it doesn't appear to benefit the Chilean billionaire's company directly since they have zero-dollar smelting contracts to send those minerals to China.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.