Human beings versus the environment: our very existence has threatened the environment from the beginning of creation. Humans have, however, recognized the need for stewardship and balance. In my lifetime great strides have taken place in environmental responsibility by the public and by industry.
That effort continues today, however seemingly broken by very zealous efforts for environmental protection.
The permitting process for industry in Minnesota is far too time-consuming and expensive, and it exhaustively seeks to remove all environmental impact. The environmental permitting strategy currently in effect in Minnesota lacks common sense and is unfair to business development here.
In far too many cases, demands in the permits seek limits on substances that are not even measurable while enforcement is an assumed value. In most cases, these substances were already in the environment prior to any industrial activity.
Minnesota's permitting process has been, in my opinion, an unfair burden to industries trying to develop or improve.
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It's time to move forward with the PolyMet project.
It's also time to review the environmental permitting process in Minnesota so the environment is protected but within the boundaries of common sense and in a timeframe that is not five years of review after review costing millions and millions of dollars.
The loss of living-wage jobs to people and communities is an unfair consequence of our very overzealous environmental permitting process here in Minnesota. Reaching for the middle class and for the American dream of self-sufficiency is becoming far more difficult as industries seek other locations to do business that are more realistic in their permitting process than here in northern Minnesota.
Roy Maki Jr.
Cloquet
