Hi folks,
1) Yesterday our petition signatures surpassed the entire population of Gogebic County where the mine site would be located.
2) All are invited to join us at our third Virtual Town Hall Meeting this Saturday at 11 a.m. CST. After sharing campaign updates, we have the honor of hosting Dr. Al Gedicks — a living legend in the fight for water protection — who will be sharing a presentation titled, "Defending Water, Defending Life," on his collaborations with local communities and Indigenous Nations to defend water resources from metallic sulfide mining threats. The presentation is sure to inspire our own efforts and will be followed by an open discussion.
3) We have received confirmation that Michigan handout of $50M in taxpayer revenue to Copperwood will reach a vote at the March 26th Michigan Strategic Fund board meeting, to be held at 9 a.m. CST / 10 a.m. EST — that's Tuesday. The MSF's comment policy has changed, and anyone interested in making a verbal comment MUST pre-register prior to 3 pm EST on the 25th. The Zoom meeting log-in info can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this page. For your convenience, we will also send out the Zoom link early Tuesday morning (please join the mailing list on the homepage of www.ProtectThePorkies.com for more timely updates).
In-person attendance is also encouraged when possible:
MEDC Building, 300 North Washington Square, Lansing, MI 48913
Whether you are from Michigan or elsewhere, all are encouraged to make a comment. Lake Superior and the Porcupine Mountains hold tremendous collective value, and their fates should not be decided by a handful of short-sighted profiteers. One way or another, this will be a crucial turning point in the battle, and we need all hands on deck. Even a single sentence, such as, "My name is ______ and I oppose the grant to Copperwood," uttered by many individuals, would deliver a powerful statement. Again, you must pre-register.
For longer comments, two main points to emphasize:
- 14,500 petition signatures and rising prove this is far too divisive of a project to be considered for taxpayer revenue.
- The main goal of the grant is economic revitalization, but a wealth of research shows mining is more likely to have the opposite effect on rural communities. To quote Harvard Economics Professor James Stock, former advisor to Obama: "In 89% of cases copper mining ends up being a negative for jobs and a negative for incomes."
We will record the board meeting and make it available in perpetuity as a record of dissent. If they are to subsidize this atrocity, at least it will be documented that there were those who were not afraid to speak up. But with your help, we fully expect to emerge victorious.
In solidarity,
Tom Grotewohl