The controversial Copperwood Mine project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula remains in limbo after the Senate failed to vote on it late last year.

In light of recent events, the state should scrap the plan to give away $50 million in taxpayer subsidies because it’s bad economic policy and a waste of taxpayer money, according to Michigan’ free-market think tank Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The proposed project includes $50 million in state incentives to Highland Copper, the Canadian company behind the Copperwood Mine project in the western U.P.

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The proposal stalled last month amid a lame-duck session filled with chaos. Lawmakers also faced pressure from environmental groups and local residents who oppose the mine in Gogebic County, The Midwesterner previously reported.

Although the environmental concerns are likely overblown, a recent Mackinac Center analysis notes “the economic justification for this taxpayer subsidy is weak.”

The mine would be adjacent to the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park and would reside on land ceded to the Anishinaabe tribe in the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe.

The mining industry is already heavily regulated to ensure environmental protections, according to Jarrett Skorup, Mackinac Center’s vice president for marketing and communications.

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What doesn’t make sense is the rationale or fiscal policy behind the overall project. For starters, building a mine doesn’t align with the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve program, which is offering incentives for the mine.

“The primary purpose for this fund, and the one most lawmakers pointed to when initially passing the program, was to lure companies to relocate or stay in Michigan instead of doing business in some other state,” Skorup noted. “That justification makes no sense in the case of a mine that you can’t just pick up and move.”

If approved, the state’s funding would be transferred to Highland Copper, which plans to raise $100 million, and used to improve the roads, electrical transmission and broadband in the project area, in Wakefield and Ironwood Townships.

The CEO of InvestUP says it does not need to be reintroduced and Senate committee members can vote on the issue if and when they have the votes, WLUC reports.

Highland Copper has gone through the strict process of getting all necessary permits to operate. The project is in the pre-construction phase while officials await project financing.

“Because this is a transfer, it does not need to start anew,” InvestUP CEO Marty Fittante told WLUC. “It’s part of the budget cycle. The budget extends from October to September, so this is part of that budget cycle that is actually still before the legislature. It requires just a transfer of the funds that have been appropriated by the MEDC to the state and into the SOAR fund,” he said, referring to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

The proposed mine has sparked a heated debate in the Upper Peninsula, with Republican lawmakers and state officials backing the project. Whitmer and the MEDC. have touted the economic benefits to the region, including promises of $425 million in capital investments and 380 “high-wage, family-sustaining jobs in the Western Upper Peninsula.”

Entering 2025, the project appears in limbo after months of delays. The Michigan Strategic Fund board approved the funding in March 2024.

The House Appropriations Committee, at the time with a Democratic majority, also said yes in mid-December, despite calls of “shame” by the nonprofit group Protect the Porkies, Michigan Advance reported.

The Senate Appropriations Committee did not vote on the funding transfer before the 2024 legislative session expired. The $50 million is being funneled through the SOAR program as a Strategic Site Readiness Program performance-based grant.

State officials claim the mine is needed to “supply copper material critical to the mobility and clean tech industries, bringing the supply chain home to Michigan,” according to a MEDC release.

But Skorup noted that Highland Copper has struggled to find investors and raise its part of the deal, citing previous reports that the company is only valued at $60 million, according to Bridge Michigan.

The Protect the Porkies campaign in opposition has garnered support from more than 300,000 individuals and 70 organizations, WLUC reported. That grassroots effort, which included calls, emails, social media shares and people showing up in Lansing, helped shut down a vote on the $50 million appropriation during the lame-duck session, The Sun Times News reports.

Tom Grotewohl, a member of Protect the Porkies, told WLUC that the $50 million appropriation could be under consideration indefinitely, but that doesn’t mean it will ever be voted on.

“We think we delivered a pretty thorough message to the Senate in the final months of last year,” Grotewohl told WLUC. “Over 15,000 people submitted emails and messages to the Senators. We have heard from a number of Senators that have confirmed that they will be voting no should it ever reach their desks again in the future.”

And despite citizens’ protests, UP lawmakers believe in the mine’s potential to revitalize the region and bring needed jobs. Republican Senators recently slammed Northern Michigan University’s quiet withdrawal of support. The university wrote a letter changing its position on the Copperwood mine to neutral, Michigan Advance reports.

In early January, Protect the Porkies circulated a letter on Monday from Northern Michigan University (NMU) President Brock Tessman dated July 19, 2024.

“The scope of the mine project also overlaps with Michigan’s cherished Porcupine Mountains State Park,” Tessman said in the letter. “Most importantly the site is proximate to — and sits on streams and other topography that flow directly into — Lake Superior, which serves as the source of vitality and sustainability for the people and the natural environment of our region.”

The group’s concerns include the ecological damage 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, Indigenous American treaty rights and other natural resources.

UP Senators contend Michigan’s modern mining laws were passed unanimously in 2004 and signed by Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Numerous environmental groups assisted and praised the passage of the laws, according to this news release.

Skorup noted the irony that pushback from environmentalists may help kill these subsidies.

“One of the main uses of the copper would be to build electric vehicle batteries that environmentalists love to subsidize,” Skorup said. “But that should have been beside the point. Based on the economic factors, the project never should have been approved for taxpayer subsidies.”