Champions of Rural America: Congressman Pete Stauber Leads Fight for America’s Resource Independence

Congressman Pete Stauber (R-MN) is serving his fourth term in the House of Representatives, representinging Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District. He recently spearheaded the repeal of a Biden-era mining ban in northern Minnesota’s Superior National Forest. Stauber says the ban kept trillions of dollars in critical minerals from being accessed, so overturning it helps northern Minnesota – and the nation.

“When they put the 20-year mining ban on, then-Secretary of the Interior Haaland didn’t even know that they were banning mining in the biggest untapped copper-nickel find in the world,” according to Stauber. He says that these are minerals “we need every day. And we use the best labor and environmental standards in the world, so we can lead the world in, number one, mining technology, and then, harvesting these minerals domestically.”

Stauber further asserts that the ban was outside the bounds of the Federal Lands Management Policy Act: “Any administration under the Federal Lands Management Policy Act can ban certain activities, up to 5,000 acres only. In this case, Biden banned 225,504 acres in the Superior National Forest, in north eastern Minnesota, and, by definition, the Superior National Forest is a working, industrial forest, where timber harvesting and mining are desired activities.”

Also according to Stauber, the area under consideration has recently been found to contain an exceptionally rich deposit of helium, but he further clarifies that merely reversing the ban does not green-light any projects, which would still have to go through a rigorous federal and state permitting process.

Representative Stauber says allowing more mining in the Superior National Forest will provide great opportunities for Minnesota and Minnesotans, with well-paying jobs that are tied to an industry with strategic importance for national security.