Democrats warn an environment funding bill the Republican-controlled Senate passed Thursday afternoon will loosen regulations and limit citizen participation in the review process. Scott Dibble, Minneapolis Senator
“If this bill were to pass into law, our water and our air would be more polluted…. This is not an environment bill — this is an anti-environment bill.”
Alexandria Republican Bill Ingebrigtsen responds:
“My district represents one-tenth of the lakes in the state of Minnesota — just my district. And if anyone in this room would come down here and think that I would allow industry to dump sewage into the water…”
Ingebrigtsen claims government regulations have exceeded their limits. His bill would give the legislature more control over D-N-R rule-making, and set up a “Mining Dashboard” to allow more public scrutiny of delays in issuing permits for mineral mining projects.