Revolving Door: Governor Granholm’s UP Director Takes Government Relations Job with Rio Tinto
By Gabriel Caplett
Marquette, MI – Matt Johnson, director of the Governor’s Office for the Upper Peninsula, has resigned from his post and now works for Rio Tinto, the parent company of Kennecott Minerals. The company has an office in Ishpeming, MI, and is seeking to develop a nickel-copper mine on the Yellow Dog Plains, in addition to other mineral projects in the area.
Johnson is now involved with government relations for the company. Prior to working in the Governor’s office, Johnson was Congressman Bart Stupak’s Upper Peninsula district administrator.
Johnson was the Governor’s contact on metallic sulfide mining in the UP, since 2003. According to Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) documents, Johnson assisted in coordinating the Governor’s involvement in the formation of Michigan’s new nonferrous metallic mining laws and kept her informed on updates from the DEQ, the company and citizens. The DEQ’s deputy director provided Johnson with talking points for the Governor regarding contentious issues related to Kennecott’s project.
Speaking for the Governor in a 2005 visit to the Keweenaw Peninsula, Johnson said, “We believe that the mining laws, because they’re some of the strongest in the nation, will balance economic development and environmental protection.”
According to the Governor’s press secretary, Liz Boyd, Johnson’s “role was to facilitate communication . . . We’re disappointed to lose Matt. He was a great asset to the governor and to this office… we wish him the very best in his new role.”
Boyd reiterated the Governor’s stance on the DEQ’s approval of Kennecott’s mining plan, maintaining that “the Department of Environmental Quality handled this permit application appropriately and followed the letter of the law.”
In a recent contested case on the DEQ’s approval, Joe Maki, a geologist with the DEQ’s Office of Geological Survey and Mine Review Team leader for the review and recommended approval of Kennecott’s application, acknowledged that the DEQ did not apply a central tenet of Michigan’s metallic mining law in considering Kennecott’s application. Maki affirmed that neither he, nor his mining team, required Kennecott to provide a mine plan that “reasonably minimizes actual or potential adverse impacts on air, water and other natural resources,” a legal requirement.
Many local citizens have previously expressed a lack of confidence in the Governor’s oversight of the DEQ in approving Kennecott’s mining operation. Johnson’s new role as government lobbyist for the company raises serious doubt as to the Governor’s ability to maintain an ethical responsiveness regarding metallic sulfide and uranium mining proposals in the Upper Peninsula.
According to Kristi Mills, Director at Save the Wild UP, “Obviously this is a lucrative career opportunity for a young professional living in the Upper Peninsula. However, Mr. Johnson’s move is indicative of the questionable relationship between our state government and Rio Tinto. This mining company, along with the DEQ, has entered a partnership by forming a nonprofit corporation to further their new mining project plans. We have not seen the end of this type of arrogance and corruption coming from these two parties.”
It seems that there should be an official inquiry into this relationship Mr. Johnson now has with Rio Tinto/Kennecott. There ought to be limitations in law for state employees to jump ship to go work for companies in this manner, much like the military has with government contractors. There ought to be some oversight, recourse, and some alarm with Governor Granholm regarding this situation. It appears very suspect of unfair influence pedalling. Johnson does not have the people’s best interest at heart, in my opinion. Even if he thinks he does, it seems unethical for him to work directly for the pro-minining interests now, having been on the state payroll just previously.
This sort of news is the sort of thing that makes one’s heartsick. I do not know why Governor Granholm travels this dismal path. Certainly Mr. Johnson’s behavior is unethical, and does not have the interests of the environment or the citizens of the UP at heart. In the face of this kind of willful sleaze, it is easy to lose some heart, but I do not think we should. Shed light on these behaviors! That is the way to neutralize shady characters, and it proves the argument that rather than these recent sulfide mining proposals being in the interests of the state and the nation, they are rather in the interest of a very few shareholders in the mines.
The rest of us must remain vigilant and refuse to permit a Rio Tinto victory, because — as Mr. Maki of the DEQ has so kindly admitted, — the DEQ didn’t even bother to demand an environmentally plan from Rio Tinto. Yet even if they do present a “plan”, it is certain to be a self-serving and specious plan.
As much as I would like to feel that with the recent election and the hope for a change in attitudes towards environmental stewardship at the national level, these venal actions at the local level break my heart. I hope we all continue the fight against short-term profit and long-term environmental degradation in our UP and throughout our world.
For all who think jobs are the only issue, Google “Rio tinto bougainville” to learn just what kind of good neighbors these people would be.
One of the reasons so many folks are leaving the Hill in DC this election cycle is because of a doubling of lobbying involvement after leaving office from one to two years. Five sounds better to me, but it’s a start.
As to claims Kennecott will clean up, I’ve been told that they will once operations are shut down. (That’s little comfort as they pollute while they’re operational.) I’ve further been told that operations cease once the last viable structure is shut down, which never happens because then they’d have to clean up.
“That’s’a some’a catch’a, that catch’a 22.”
It seems to me that when money is involved
people lose their integrity. The people need to continue to fight back. Mr. Johnson is bought just like other politician’s. Greed will destroy are world and it is up to the people we elected to protect us from this kid of environmental destruction. The people don’t want the mine, so their shouldn’t be one. Try to pass a permit to build a garage with your neighbor showing a disapproval, you wont get the permit. Ruin the world and have thousands showing disapproval and …… I pray it will be stopped. The quiet place I call home.
In my opinion this indicates an obvious and very disturbing conflict of interest. It makes one wonder how long Mr. Johnson has actually been on the Kennecott payroll. Apparently, Kennecott is now sufficiently confident in the fact that their mine(s) will be approved by the same government which Mr. Smith was supposedly representing.
This type of occurrence is indicative of how the powerful mining interests operate both here and elsewhere. It is an outrage and should be fully investigated immediately. Shame on you Mr. Johnson…you were supposed to be representing the people and you failed us.
Many of us really wondered about Governor Granholm and Matt Johnson–and their benign neglect of some of the earlier, major DNR/DEQ issues in regard to the potential pollution dangers to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s environment via the Rio Tinto/Kennecott’s metallic sulfide mining permits.
Now, pieces of the recent (2007-8) DNR/DEQ puzzle (and what really transpired in Lansing–and why) fall into place–particularly with Matt Johnson–who obviously also had private, personal contact with–and ultimately, a job offer–from Rio Tinto/Kennecott. It’s now obvioius that for Matt Johnson, ethical behavior is not required in representing the interests of the taxpayers and those who care about the Marquette and Baraga County watersheds and other ecosystems. (He should be ashamed of himself, but I doubt it….)
And now. we’re also dealing with the US/EPA’s Region 5 Office–and the recent firing of Region 5 Director Mary Gade (who earlier took on Dow in Midland, MI, and their major watershed pollution); and who was quickly replaced by the anti-environmental Bush Administration’s appointee in August.
So, more public vigilance and action is required to make sure that the upcoming Region 5 EPA rulings on this sulfide mining permit issue are not to have similar, “unethically tainted” results. It’s amazing how corporate greed appears to trump ethics, public good, health and safety so easily…Let’s not permit that to happen, again!
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