This week, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Chairman Pete Stauber (R-Minn.) opened an inquiry into three radical environmental groups’ role in the Biden administration’s cancellation of two decades-old mineral leases in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest and the withdrawal of 225,504 acres of land in the same area from mineral exploration and development. In letters to the groups, the members wrote:

“The Committee is keen to discover the details of [Earthjustice’s, the Wilderness Society’s and the Center for Biological Diversity’s] backroom roles in the cancellation of the Twin Metals leases and the Superior Withdrawal, particularly given tax-exempt environmental groups’ continued pressure to oppose mining in Northern Minnesota and otherwise negatively influence America’s natural resource and energy priorities.”

Background

The Duluth Complex in northern Minnesota contains 95 percent of America’s nickel reserves, 88 percent of America’s cobalt reserves, one-third of America’s copper reserves, and various platinum group metals. The prospective Twin Metals project is a copper-nickel-cobalt mine in the region.

In January 2022, amid ongoing litigation, the Biden administration canceled the Twin Metals leases. The Biden administration’s actions spurned years of environmental review; a pending Mine Plan of Operations; and myriad comments and letters from Members of Congress, mineral developers, locals, and union workers overwhelmingly supportive of the Twin Metals project. That same month, the Biden administration also finalized a mineral withdrawal in the Superior National Forest, encompassing 225,504 mineral-rich acres and further kneecapping the domestic mining. Meanwhile, Earthjustice, the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity intervened in lawsuits on behalf of the Biden administration’s political decision to revoke the leases.

Read the Committee’s letter to the Center for Biological Diversity here.

Read the Committee’s letter to Earthjustice here.

Read the Committee’s letter to the Wilderness Society here.