The Will of the People

Voters in Montana have rejected cyanide heap leach open-pit mining not once, but twice. A environmentally destructive process that uses cyanide to extract tiny amounts of precious metals from large amounts of rock.

Today, the House gave initial approval to a bill that would undo the repeated will of Montanans and allow this process in the state once again.

This bill would be incredibly damaging to our environment. It would pollute our rivers and streams, destroy our mountains and injure our animals. This would ruin our lands that Montanans can use to recreate and would also severely damage our important tourism industry.

While the environmental impacts of this bill are bad enough, this bill also tells us something important about the mindset of Republicans in the legislature. The simple fact that they would introduce legislation that flies in the face of the expressed will of Montana voters is an insult enough. However, the fact that this bill is quickly making its way to the Governor’s desk, sends a clear message from Republicans to Montana voters; they think they know better than we do.

This type of arrogance has no place in our politics. Republican legislators need to be reminded that they work for us.