Magnetation criticized for scouting sites beyond Range
January 31, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
The company is considering sites outside of the state because it says Minnesota’s permitting process cannot keep up with its expansion timeline. Continue Reading
These environmental people, ex. Ellen Anderson, who was just fired and then rehired by our Governor, are the type of people responsible for these companies wanting to ‘move’ out of this state.
Do they think that the ‘mercury’ just “stays” in Wisconsin?
Do they think the pollution in India & China just stays in a ‘pocket’ of air that hovers over their countries?
Do they think they are going to live 300 to 400 years old to see that their ‘restrictions’ have had little
to zero effect on the environment??
There was more pollution {and waste} from the Pagami Creek Fire than any of our businesses could
could have ever imagined creating. This same ‘type’ of environmental thinking allowed this fire to burn.
Keystone XL has been abrupted by this ‘save the earth thinking’.
PolyMet is still struggling on account of this ‘type of thinking’.
Mineral exploratory drilling in Northern MN has been haulted.
‘Cap and Trade’,, is and can kill businesses,,, with this wacko environmental thinking.
C’mon people,, we are not going to “poop” in our own nest!
Your Obama people and Dayton people are killing those of us who want to work,,, pay taxes and live a good life !!
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Cribmaster, we HAVE been pooping in our own nest. Our fish are unsafe to eat, for children and pregnant women, because of the mercury in them. The rest of us are advised to limit the consumption of Minnesota fish because of the mercury.
Yes, some of the mercury is naturally occurring, but the rest of it is from our industrial methods.
We can not improve the pollution issues by letting industrial practices continue as they have always done.
We have to change the way we do things, and emission control methods are a big part of that needed change.
tom koehler
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Why would you want to “live a good life” on money you earned by pooping in your own nest? If there’s nothing stopping these industries, there’s no reason for them not to poop. Look at nearly any 3rd world country and you’ll see what I mean. Putting faith into an unregulated industry that it won’t poop in your community is like putting faith into a stranger’s kid with crayons that he won’t draw on your walls.
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The state can’t buy jobs.
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I can’t blame him. If I can’t get a permit to build what I want here, I’m going somewhere else to do it. Same thing.
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“We’ve assured him we can find a solution that will make this work,’’ said Ann Foss, manager of the PCA’s industrial division. “But they haven’t even submitted a (permit) application yet. We can’t respond to something we haven’t seen. Hopefully, we can get a better sense of what they want at this meeting and go forward from there. Larry’s a bright guy; we have a lot of bright people around here. If he wants, we can make this work.” Verbal arm-folding. Instead of waiting for Magnetation’s permit application, why don’t you help them write it? Rather than delaying projects, why don’t you expedite them?
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Minnesota’s business climate does need some work. Instead of complaining the Range delegation should be working to make it easier for businesses. Remember the Range would not be the Iron Range without Iron jobs..
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Move it to Superior if the State refuses to play ball. Raukavina can bluster till the cows come home and threaten to tax the export of concentrate outside of Mn, but he’ll lose. The US supreme Court has consistently ruled that taxing the export from one state to another violates the commerce clause of the constitution. But then again, nobody ever accused Tommy of being anything more than a blowhard.
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Why does the permit process for construction, that will benefit the economy, in Minnesota always tend to be a deal braking situation, due in most part to time constraints, while other states are willing and able to expedite such a priority venture?
How much money has he accepted for research into applying the technology? I believe that those monies have been well utilized and all parties have made gains. Minnesota and the community had wages and Magnetation obtained the procedure. Now Minnesota and the community have to make an important decision. Are we satisfied with the current amount of wages and taxes, or would we like to receive more?
If Minnesota is not the choice, I hope Wisconsin gets it.
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Lehtinen is gaming the system again hoping that the pca and dnr will cave and allow more pollution that could easily be prevented. Magnetation is covering the range cities with dust which is unhealthy at best. Nugget plants still are not required to remove the hundreds of pounds of mercury they put out each year. The pellet plant in WI is probably being coordinated with the GTAC mine to pressure the state to turn pollution control into a joke as proposed in the new iron mining law being proposed by “conservatives”.
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Okay, all you business boosters out there, do a little math. Lehtinen is hoping to push some of his costs onto the rest of us, and pocket the difference. If he can avoid the cost of adequate pollution controls at the expense of the rest of us, it is money in his pocket. The price the rest of us pay is in the coin of health and quality of life… airborne dusts which infiltrate the community to its detriment, and toxic compounds which raise the toxicity of the air and water and land, and subsequently increases the toxicity of the fish and other foods we consume.
Figure the additional cost and pollution of producing the iron pellets without adequate pollution controls in Wisconsin or Ohio, when the raw concentrate has to be shipped (with the attendant additional and unneccessary fuel consumption and pollution) those extra miles, compared to the cost of producing the pellets right where the raw concentrate is produced – with adequate emission controls.
Remember, not all the true cost is in immediate dollars. The greater amount of the cost is in long-term damage to our air, our water and our soil, and food sources derived from our air and water and soil. If you can’t drink the water, breathe the air or eat the food, what good is the money?
It is likely the case that I am wasting my time writing this, as it involves things which do not have price tags on them and therefore unintelligible to you.
tom koehler
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TK, here’s a news flash for you: No Business = NO JOBS! I am unapologetic when it comes to encouraging job grow, while the Marxist Statists want less business and more gov’t jobs. What the left refuses to acknowledge is that those gov’t jobs come at the expense of tax payers dollars, and for a taxpayer to have those dollars, he MUST HAVE A JOB! DUH?
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It’s hard to understand how anyone can disagree with this one. I suppose one could dislike the capitalist system — but I don’t know where the taxes would come from without it.
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I don’t know of the business or the politics of the Magnetation project. I do know of the business climate here in NE Minn. As a small manufacturer on the edge of a new expansion, I have been stunned by the lack of support by local city and county officials. It’s almost if there is some mentality that if someone’s from here they can’t be much good and we have to hope for someone with a lot of money from out of town to save us.
I never would have considered it even a year ago, but I am now seriously considering locations in Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
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I live in Keewatin and the dust created by magnetation is ridiculous. After what the City of Keewatin and the IRRB has given Magnetation for a few dirty grimy jobs is a joke. Larry Lehtinen is one of the biggest crooks in Northern Minnesota. He’s out for one person!!! Here’s a message Larry. Take your Magnetation project and leave and don’t let the door hit you in the a#$.
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Why don’t you guys have the guts to say what you are thinking…lets just skip the environmental review of the impacts of his project, because heck you don’t care, and just give him the permit. That would only take – what – about 2 minutes to sign some papers? Would we be business friendly enough then?
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No one wants environmental damage. Why can’t the government we pay for help businesses develop environmentally safe techniques for mining rather than show an attitude of obstruction. We need to protect the environment, that’s a threshold requirement, but we need jobs, too. We should show the world that it can be done instead of rejecting the opportunity.
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Sounds like they’ve been exceeding the allowances already.
http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/Red-Dust-Marks-Keewatin-Homeowners-Speak-Out-137065748.html
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Red dust means jobs, jobs mean someone can live on the Range. People complaining should look in mirror.
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We had red dust across the range in the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s and nobody complained because they were working and were able to afford a house, a car, a lawnmower and clothes for the whole family. No dryers in those days…the clothes were hung on the line and over time, they all acquired an orange tint. So what, at least we had clothes and food on the table. All the kids had red dust on their play clothes because they built forts on the ore(y) dumps. Time for people near the Magnetation plants to grow up and assimilate.
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Bev, you mean “be assimilated” don’t you?
See the article about the amount of mercury in newborns in the Duluth/Lake Superior area.
Maybe you’ll achieve a new ‘victim’ status?
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So what? That’s why there’s a ten million dollar study on all the cancer that is killing Iron Range Miners.
Bev, when you give a comment at least try to show you have half a brain!!
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Wise up pc. Mesothelioma is caused by taconite dust, not hematite dust. Before you throw spears, do your research first. Magnetation is reclaiming hematite tailings…not taconite!
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