More than 70 organizations and 300,000 individuals are pushing back against taxpayer subsidies for a Canadian copper mine in Gogebic County, but lawmakers could approve the spending anyway.

Controversial legislation to give $50 million in taxpayer subsidies to a Copperwood Mine adjacent to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park cleared the Michigan House Appropriations Committee last week, and now awaits approval from the Senate.

Lawmakers in the House approved the $425 million project from the Canadian-mining company Highland Copper despite a Protect the Porkies campaign in opposition that has garnered more than 300,000 individuals and 70 organizations, WLUC reports.

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Tom Grotewohl, who founded the campaign, told the news site many are concerned about the negative impact the development will have on the region’s untouched wilderness, which includes the largest old growth forest in the country, as well as Lake Superior.

“Most alarmingly because they have to roll out a power grid to a virgin area,” he said. “That’s going to lay the foundation for ongoing development long after the mine closes in 11 years. That could risk forever changing the wilderness characteristic of this beloved area.”

Grotewohl noted the 60,000 acre state park was recently named “the most beautiful state park in the nation” by the travel website Travel Lens, based on reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor.

Highland Copper plans to construct a mine tunneling under the westernmost portion of the park that’s expected to yield about 1.5% copper, and the rest waste, which would be stored in an area that slopes toward Lake Superior.

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Some opponents contend the situation risks acid mine drainage from sulfide tailings could combine with water and air to create sulfuric acid, and contribute to heavy metals leaching into the area, Michigan Advance reports.

Others note the mine would reside on land ceded to the Anishinaabe tribe in the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe, potentially threatening guaranteed rights to hunt, fish and gather.

“There’s a lot of history of toxic sites, Superfund sites, brownfield sites, from a destructive, extractive look at how we interact with this world and with our natural spaces. A lot of talk about jogs. There’s a lot of work to be done cleaning up those sites that already exist. We don’t need to add additional, especially in a place like the Porcupine Mountains,” Nichole Keway Biber, member of the Little Traverse Bay of Odawa Indians, testified in Lansing.

Keway Biber and others, including state Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, criticized the House committee for approving $50 million for the project alongside funding for others, instead of voting on the taxpayer-funded subsidies individually.

“The entire reason we have legislative oversight through the appropriations committee is so that each project can be considered individually on the merits of that project, and to force a vote on the entire package is a disservice to our constituents,” Morgan said.

“They could have been decided on individually, but they didn’t take that opportunity to at least say no to putting the Porcupine Mountains at risk and ignoring all those clear voices saying, ‘We do not want this,’” Keway Biber said.

“A lot of people I was talking to today, this was a lot of their first time coming to this building, engaging in this way, getting involved, and what they just witnessed was that their legislators can be bullied into voting for something their constituents do not want.”

Proponents touted an estimated 380 jobs that come with the mine, and polling from InvestUP that alleges support from between 77% and 89% of locals, according to Michigan Advance.

“This is absolutely an opportunity to revive the economy and bring prosperity to that region,” InvestUP CEO Marty Fittante told WLUC.

The project is backed by state Rep. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, state Rep. Greg Markannen, R-Hancock, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and supervisors in Wakefield and Ironwood townships.

The MEDC approved the $50 million grant from taxpayers in March.

“This $50 million grant is a wonderful endorsement from the State of Michigan and provides a significant financial boost to the economic strength of the Copperwood Project,” Highland Copper CEO Barry O’Shea said in a statement cited by Michigan Advance following MEDC approval. “We are thankful to Governor Whitmer and the hard-working team at MEDC for their relentless efforts and support.”

The grant is now awaits approval from the state Senate Appropriations Committee, though that committee is not scheduled to meet before the end of the year. The committee could schedule a meeting or send the legislation to the full Senate for a vote, the Lansing State Journal reports.

The funding is contingent on Highland Copper raising $150 million by December 2025, and site preparations are already underway.

If the Senate doesn’t approve the funding in the current lame duck session, a new bill would be required next session, when Republicans take control of the lower chamber and put an end to the first Democratic government trifecta in 40 years.