CLAIM: Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, while vice president for President Obama, oversaw the loss of thousands of logging jobs and “nearly a decade of decline” for the industry in Minnesota, according to Associated Contract Loggers & Truckers of Minnesota Executive Director Scott Dane.
VERDICT: True. As has been documented, Minnesota’s loggers experienced crippling job losses and mill closures throughout the Biden-Obama years and dating back to the George W. Bush administration.
“The last time Joe Biden was in the White House, Minnesota lost over half of its mills, thousands of jobs, and experienced nearly a decade of decline,” Dane said. “The administration just didn’t seem to care. In 47 years in Washington, Joe Biden hasn’t done anything for the timber industry.” He continued:
When plants closed in Duluth, Sartel, and International Falls, they were just numbers on a paper to the Obama-Biden administration. To me, they were people and jobs and families. Under Obama-Biden, radical environmentalists were allowed to kill the forests. Wildfire after wildfire shows the consequences. Managed forests — the kind my people work in, are healthy forests.
“Under President Trump, we’ve seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires,” Dane said. “And we’ve seen new support for our way of life — where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class.”
In October 2013, the Star Tribune noted the rapid decline of the logging industry for Minnesotans:
As of July, the tree harvest in Minnesota had plummeted 40 percent in six years, mostly because of the departure of companies that make oriented strand board by fusing pieces of wood with glue under high pressure. [Emphasis added]
In August, two more mills announced closures, erasing a tenth of the demand that remained. Verso Paper closed its mill in Sartell two months after an explosion and fire that killed a man, saying the tepid market for its brand of magazine paper didn’t justify the expense of repairs. A few days later, privately held Georgia-Pacific announced it would shutter a plant in Duluth that made a thin, hard product called Superwood. [Emphasis added]
Over the past 10 years, 22,500 jobs in logging have disappeared in the United States, a 32 percent decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Emphasis added]
The year before, in August 2012, MPR News reported the closure of mills in the state:
August was a tough month for Minnesota’s timber industry. The Verso paper mill in Sartell and the Georgia-Pacific hardboard plant in Duluth both shut down permanently, putting 400 people out of work. [Emphasis added]
The plant closings were among the latest blows to an industry that’s been on the ropes since the last recession began. In all, six mills have closed over the past five years. That’s about a third of the industry. [Emphasis added]
In 2017, though, President Trump slapped tariffs on softwood lumber imported from Canada. Minnesota’s logging industry leaders welcomed the news after years of being forced to compete with Canadian subsidized lumber.
CBS Minnesota reported:
The industry has been struggling in Minnesota and Wisconsin in recent years. The housing market crash in 2008 cut demand for softwood lumber products such as pine 2×4 studs and other kinds of boards used to build homes, which are among the products affected by the administration’s move. So industry groups in both states saw Monday’s announcement as good news for communities with sawmills, and for loggers who supply them.
The Trump administration and U.S. industry groups say Canada unfairly subsidizes its softwood lumber industry. The dispute goes back to the 1980s. The U.S. contends that the prices charged by Canadian federal and provincial governments for harvesting timber on public land are below market rates, amounting to a subsidy that puts U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.