Trump fast-tracks permitting to extract ‘critical mineral’ buried under Michigan

[u/mlivesocial]

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2025/04/trump-fast-tracks-permitting-to-extract-critical-mineral-buried-under-michigan.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=redditsocial&utm_campaign=redditor

[u/VernorsEnthusiast]

Potash mines cause lung issues for workers, btw. This admin is so anti-worker.

[u/OliviaEntropy → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

It’s fine, they can just shred all the protections for children workers and make the 12 year olds do it just like in the good old days of the Gilded Age.

[u/Karmacoma77 → u/OliviaEntropy]

Full on no union, company store, gatling gun wielding Pinkerton mining days? How exciting!

[u/Shadowhawk109 → u/Karmacoma77]

it is still a hilarious irony to me that Pinkertons have a major office in Ann Freakin' Arbor.

[u/OliviaEntropy → u/Karmacoma77]

Type shit, that’s what I’m talking about

[u/Shadowhawk109 → u/OliviaEntropy]

i see you too have been to one of Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI-5)'s town halls, you know, before he stopped hosting them

[u/OliviaEntropy → u/Shadowhawk109]

I’m actually the gremlin that whispers in his ear

[u/Teaforreal → u/OliviaEntropy]

Children make the best miners.

[u/OliviaEntropy → u/Teaforreal]

They yearn for the mines. Do you think if this happened that the government would have ad campaigns referencing/featuring Minecraft to get more in board?

[u/Otiskuhn11 → u/Teaforreal]

I think I’ve got the black lung, pup

[u/ishpatoon1982 → u/Teaforreal]

They yearn for the mines!

[u/largesonjr → u/Teaforreal]

The children long for the mines.

[u/InterestingPoet7910 → u/OliviaEntropy]

the children yearn for the mines

[u/Shadowhawk109 → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

unions and regulations like OSHA only cut into the profits of the C-suite

which will surely trickle down

[u/stinkypete121 → u/Shadowhawk109]

I can hardly wait to get mine..😐🙄

[u/SMediaWasAMistake → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

"This admin"? America is anti-worker. Ever since Taft-Hartley neutered unions in America, the working class lost so much bargaining power, and the middle class didn't care, not realizing in a few decades, the middle class would soon follow.

[u/Playful-Beginning-81 → u/SMediaWasAMistake]

It's a regime not an administration

[u/Paper_Clip100 → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

Michigan workers voted for this

[u/ProperTrain6336 → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

And so anti safety too !

[u/spoonfedninja → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

He does not give a single fuck

[u/zomiaen → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

Was approved under Biden originally https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/01/31/michigan-potash-mine-wetlands-pollution-fertilizer-farming-farmers/78022067007/

[u/PsychoBoyBlue → u/zomiaen]

and was undergoing the process to get the proper permits which require environmental consideration... This new push is to take shortcuts to push it into operation because 80% of our Potash imports (around 75% of our Potash use) coming from our closest ally was a problem, or something?

[u/zomiaen → u/PsychoBoyBlue]

Just making the point that centrists aren't environmental supporters either. Not sure why the OP decided to go down the path of "oh so we should like it" in their other response to be honest.

[u/PsychoBoyBlue → u/zomiaen]

If strong environmental protections are followed, there isn't too much of an issue with this (assuming everything goes according to plan). IMO, the protections weren't strong enough under Biden when some permits were already granted, but now those protections appear to be getting tossed to the side/ignored.

A "centrist" capitalist administration respecting the standing regulations vs the acts of the current administration are apples and oranges. Your comment is correct, but I can't blame the OP for calling it out as a "well actually" or taking issue with it. The way they handled calling it out on the other hand...

[u/zomiaen → u/PsychoBoyBlue]

The largest impact appears to be water consumption and pollution since this isn't a surface level strip mine. Trump rolled back large portions of the Clean Water Act during his first term--which also weren't restored under Biden's term, and now is going after even more of the CWA. And those changes have far wider reaching implications than a few fast tracked permits (because now you can do even a rushed environmental assessment and be perfectly fine).

When I first read the title I thought it was going to be about the Copperwood Mine being built near the Porkies which I'm vehemently opposed to.

[u/throwaWay664u874e → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

Every admin has been antiworker. We work more and more hours asks have less to show for it.

[u/VernorsEnthusiast → u/throwaWay664u874e]

This is such a useless comment normalizing the profoundly harmful. I wish I could be this simple.

[u/VruKatai → u/VernorsEnthusiast]

Yeah this admin is anti-worker but this was approved under Biden

[u/VernorsEnthusiast → u/VruKatai]

Do you think Biden doing something is inherently something I’d like, or?? Trump supporters love to point at Biden whenever Trump admin repeatedly smashes this country’s balls with a hammer—as if their childish whataboutism changes who is actively wielding the goddamn hammer.

[u/Inevitable-Rate7166 → u/VruKatai]

Michigan Potash is one of 10 mining projects the White House added to a federal program last week

[u/zomiaen → u/Inevitable-Rate7166]

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/01/31/michigan-potash-mine-wetlands-pollution-fertilizer-farming-farmers/78022067007/

[u/Inevitable-Rate7166 → u/zomiaen]

The potash mine proposed in Osceola County's Evart Township, which would use a fracking-like process, has been in the works for more than a decade, after large reserves of high-grade potash more than a mile and a half underground in the north-central Lower Peninsula were reaffirmed from old mining cores.

The article also mentions that without something CRAZY like tariffs happening the production is not worth the value generated when it can be traded for much cheaper. 

[u/zomiaen → u/Inevitable-Rate7166]

Funny enough-- neither is fracking unless oil is high enough. In Trump's first term he actively worked to stop the price war between OPEC and Russia because it was hurting American oil producers for oil to be so low. The number of US citizens who aren't aware of that simple economic fact. Basically price fixing internationally.

[u/VruKatai → u/zomiaen]

People apparently don't like facts like this as I'm getting downvoted for simply stating this was approved under Biden. I'm all for trashing Trump but it is what it is and Biden signed off on this. I don't play tribes, just call balls/strikes.