Today's Minnesota Senate Committee on Energy and the Environment hearing on Senator Matt Schmit's SF786 looks to be a reprise in citizen attendance--though not testimony--of last week's joint hearing on frac sand mining in Minnesota.
MPR reports that the committee will vote on the bill, which has drawn criticism from the Land Stewardship Project (LSP)
for failing to include a statewide moratorium on new silica sand
mining, as well as the establishment of a silica sand mining board that
might incentivize new projects. LSP has organized bus transportation for
Southeastern Minnesota grassroots frac sand mining activists, who are well-organized in their counties and communities.
The
mining industry and the powerful 49ers Local of the International
Union of Operating Engineers (IUOP), on the other hand, oppose new rules
in the bill, as well as language enabling a Generic Environmental
Impact Statement (GEIS), having testified that the industry is heavily regulated as it is.
The
editorial board of the Mankato Free Press--publishing in the hometown
of co-sponsor Kathy Sheran (DFL-Mankato)--has come out in favor of the
strategy embodied in the bill in today's editorial: Review sand mining regulations.
Watch the committee action on The Uptake's Senate Channel at noon.
Photo: SE MN resident Vince Ready speaks at last week's Land Stewardship Project press conference before the joint committee hearing on silica sand mining.
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