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Wth!! FUCK michigan asshat!!How did Michigan give $50 million of our dollars to a new, Canadian mining company to extract copper from the Porcupine Mountains, near the shore of Lake Superior, without approval from the legislature?It looks like the Governor's team took money that was designated for a microchip manufacturing facility and are trying to repurpose those dollars to support a mine.They did this because this project didn't have support in our legislature, but they wanted to do it anyway. So, the way they did this was wrong and possibly illegal.It is also simply a bad project for public funds. That's why the project couldn't get support through the normal process. Legislators like me, who are reluctant to give taxpayer money to private businesses, want to see a real and obvious benefit to the public for projects like this.That's how the administration was able to sell the funding for microchip manufacturing projects.These are advanced manufacturing projects that bring lots of jobs that stick around for a long time.A chips manufacturing plant would also be likely to bring other advanced manufacturing jobs and maybe research and development opportunities for people and businesses in Michigan. A mine, on the other hand, brings a relatively small number of short term jobs combined with long-term environmental damage. What's more, we aren't competing with Indiana, Alabama, or Indonesia for the mine jobs. The copper, worth billions, can't be sent overseas. There is no good reason to subsidize this business.The proposal is to mine from a parcel immediately adjacent to the Porcupine Mountains State Wilderness Area and to mine under the state park as well as on the adjacent land. Protect The Porkies has more details.