Robert Marvin

“I’m a licensed professional engineer (PE) (electrical) and consultant. I work with other licensed professionals all the time. I very much value the input and expertise and am mindful of my colleges expertise, knowledge, and judgement. But I’m also aware that everyone can fund research, hire consultants, and drive answers and responses to questions based on agendas - so it is important to be mindful of bias. It is important to listen to a variety of views and hear the arguments. Where I would rely on the views of “experts” (scientists, professionals, etc.) very much depends on the subject. But I tend to think there are “experts” on nearly all subjects and it is important listen and hear all sides to an issue (not just the two main ones typically presented).”

KEYWORDS: Listen, Experts, Judgement

“Our environment and natural resources in Minnesota are extremely important and no mining operations have the right to contaminate or otherwise pollute our environment, our water supply, the BWCA, etc. Minnesota has some of the nations largest deposits of Cobalt and Nickel. We also have very significant copper and platinum-group metal deposits. Accessing resources is critical and necessary to development, our economy, and jobs. Mining technology has advanced a great deal from the way it was years ago and technology, best practices, etc. have improved a great deal and we’ve figured out ways to much more safely extract the targeted minerals without otherwise impacting our environment. Mining in any area (not just near the BWCA) needs to be watched carefully so that it isn’t causing damage, but this is something we are much better able to do now. The jobs and investment - especially in northern Minnesota would be of huge value to our state. We can come together as scientists and engineers and figure out ways to accomplish things and maintain our CRITICAL environmental resources such as the BWCA so these aren’t damaged or polluted while getting the critical resources we need.”

KEYWORDS: Clean water, Responsible mining, environment protection

“There are a lot of “forever” compounds in the environment that can and have been shown to be harmful such as mercury, PCBs, asbestos, and so forth. PFAS are unusual in that they are man made and essentially inert and don’t break down. But they have the special property that we made them and we know who made them which makes them a target for legal actions. Obviously, we need to be trying to identify point sources as well as major sources of contamination and mitigating these. Science is pretty good at finding polluters who are dumping but struggles with green ideas like paper recycling regarding things like benzine picked up in the process. Fortunately, we have experts, scientists, and professionals who have experience with these issues and we can cooperate as a team to get issues addressed and keep our environment clean and/or mitigate / remediate issues that exists.”

KEYWORDS: Clean Water, Clean Environment, remediation

“We need jobs, we need technology, we need resources, and we need to keep on the cutting edge here in Minnesota if we expect to compete. Our people also need the services that come along with this new technology. But at the same time we don’t need to have these new “customers” on our services such as electrical service and water sources to be able to come in and take advantage of our local residents. So we need to be very mindful of the impacts on areas where these are going in and making sure the new (potentially huge) customers are paying for these new demands on our services and not otherwise negatively impacting out communities. Noise, high electrical demand, high water demand, heat, etc. can all be issues to look at and address and make sure plans are made and put in place to address.”

KEYWORDS: Electrical Grid, Water Supply, Property taxes

“Research and development at places like our Public Universities can be of huge benefit to the local residents of our state and the region. Advancing the the art, coming up with new and novel solutions, discovering new things, designing solutions, and making life better for everyone. It also helps greatly with the process of teaching our new scientist and giving them worthy projects to work on for the projects including graduate studies and even post-doctoral work. We need to keep our state and our nation at the cutting edge of development and technology.”

KEYWORDS: Research, innovation, technology

“This is a difficult issue. I don’t put people in boxes based on who their parents are. Priority #1 is working on helping people with mental health issues or otherwise down and out to move them off public programs and into better situations where they are able to take care of themselves and contribute positively to society. Addiction and dependency will always be there, but we can try help them out of that. As a safety net, getting emergency response tools in the hands of people who are dependable and often there is critical. So getting resources to our first responders and other professionals if the field can help as a safety net. But I think the real solution is helping the people who are down to lift themselves up and become clean and self sufficient is the only real solution.”

KEYWORDS: Addiction, Treatment, Education, Rehabilitation