Committee title should be "Profits Committee" by Eric Mathew

There are many people who are trying to push the idea that we must sacrifice the Penokee Mountain Range in order to bring needed jobs up north. However, the company that wishes to push this idea is run by Chris Cline, who has bragged about hiring fewer people than competing mining firms – this is in an industry that is not known for high levels of employment because miners have been mostly replaced by machinery. The miners that come will be skilled miners, and will likely be imported to the area from other projects, such as occurred during the 2010 opening of the Cline Mining Group's New Elk Mine in Colorado, which did not hire any of it's miners from the town in which it operates

This mine will not increase the wealth of our local communities as Gogebic Taconite is claiming. In fact, mining has been known to bring poverty – not wealth, to communities. Anybody who thinks that this mine will bring in large amounts of money should spend some time in West Virginia, where companies like Massey Energy are destroying entire mountains to extract coal as fast as possible with as few employees as possible. The citizens of Appalachia deal with unnatural flooding, undrinkable water, and high rates of cancer because of these mines. The wealth is not trickling down into these communities, but the disastrous byproducts of these mines are. What it will provide is something that cannot be said when a politician has to make a meager attempt at pleasing people to get into office. That word is PROFITS. This mine will do a lot to make some rich men richer, with money flowing out of the Northland through the giveaway of our natural resources down to West Palm Beach Florida, where Mr. Cline lives in a 33 thousand foot palace on the Atlantic shoreline. This money will probably help Cline and others fund a few more campaigns like they did in 2010 – giving thousands of dollars to politicians in our state government in order to pass legislation written by the companies themselves. These people have no interest in Jobs for the rest of us, but they are very concerned with their profits.At least 6 of the 15 members of the Jobs Committee, are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a shadowy organization which connects politicians with lobbyists for the largest of firms and corporations which push legislation that assist these groups. This legislation often comes at the expense of small businesses, employee protections, and environmental regulations. Since so many of the members of this committee are cronies of the wealthiest people in the United States, maybe we should call the Jobs committee what it really is: The Profits Committee.