To just about everybody's surprise it appears that even the Trump Administration has serious concerns about the opening of Pebble Mine in Alaska.

Courtesy of The Hill:

The Trump administration is reviving a controversial Obama administration proposal to block a massive gold mine proposed in Alaska after previously saying it would revive the proposal. 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt announced the surprise reversal late Friday, saying that the EPA now believes that the Pebble Mine project would be unacceptably harmful to Bristol Bay and its tributaries. 

Pruitt said he made the call after speaking with various stakeholders involved in the decision, citing serious concerns with the impact from mining and mining waste on the bay. 

“We have restored process, reviewed comments, and heard from a variety of stakeholders on whether to withdraw the proposed restrictions in the Bristol Bay watershed,” Pruitt said in a statement. 

“Based on that review, it is my judgment at this time that any mining projects in the region likely pose a risk to the abundant natural resources that exist there. Until we know the full extent of that risk, those natural resources and world-class fisheries deserve the utmost protection.”

Seriously I would NEVER have thought that freaking Scott Pruitt would put the brakes on this thing. 

I figured that Pruitt carried around an industrial strength condom just so that he could personally rape the land himself.

But I guess this just goes to show you that this Pebble Mine proposal is certain to be an environmental disaster of Biblical proportions.

So bad that even an administration which sees restrictions on development as a personal affront to their capitalist ideals cannot bring themselves to sign off on it.

Trump's EPA may be working to find a way to green light the Pebble Mine. Have I told you how much I dislike the people in this administration?

Courtesy of CNN: 

Within hours of meeting with a mining company CEO, the new head of the US Environmental Protection Agency directed his staff to withdraw a plan to protect the watershed of Bristol Bay, Alaska, one of the most valuable wild salmon fisheries on Earth, according to interviews and government emails obtained by CNN. 

The meeting between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, took place on May 1, Collier and his staff confirmed in an interview with CNN. At 10:36 a.m. that same day, the EPA's acting general counsel, Kevin Minoli, sent an email to agency staff saying the administrator had "directed" the agency to withdraw an Obama-era proposal to protect the ecologically valuable wetland in southwest Alaska from certain mining activities. 

In 2014, after three years of peer-reviewed study, the Obama administration's EPA invoked a rarely used provision of the Clean Water Act to try to protect Bristol Bay after finding that a mine "would result in complete loss of fish habitat due to elimination, dewatering, and fragmentation of streams, wetlands, and other aquatic resources" in some areas of the bay. 

"All of these losses would be irreversible," the agency said.

The EPA is suggesting that this does NOT mean they will give the go ahead for the mining project, suggesting that they  want to simply do an environmental impact statement first, but we know they are going to green light this project.

Remember everything that President Obama did, Donald Trump wants undone.

Alaskans fought this project for years, and now all of that hard work might be for nothing, because some racist white guy has a hard on for the first black president.

Seriously, have I mentioned how much I dislike the people in this administration?

The once dead Pebble Mine project has now been resurrected, thanks to Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Plans to mine alongside Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay, where half the world’s salmon are fished, had appeared dead in the water in recent years. 

Not anymore. The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped a regulatory plan that would have protected Bristol Bay from the planned Pebble Mine, encouraging the project’s backers to seek permits and move forward. 

Northern Dynasty, the mining concern behind the Pebble project, has had a rough few years. In 2014, the Obama EPA moved to block its plans to mine for copper and gold under the Clean Water Act, prompting the company to launch a costly court battle. Then a New York investments house announced it believes the company’s stock is effectively worth $0.00 — because even if Pebble gets approved it will be economically impossible to extract the minerals there in a profitable fashion. 

Optimists, meanwhile, began pushing Northern Dynasty stock as a get-rich-quick opportunity following President Donald Trump’s election victory, in anticipation of a reversal in federal policy toward Pebble. On Friday, that prediction was proven at least partly correct: EPA head Scott Pruitt announced the agency would settle Northern Dynasty’s lawsuit, abandon Obama-era regulatory plans, and allow the company to apply for a mining permit.

Alaska natives, fishermen, and environmental groups worked pretty damn hard to put the kibosh on this terrible project, and now with one hijacked election we are back to square one. 

Elections have consequences, perhaps if Alaskans had bothered to research the candidates they would not have helped elect the man who will help to poison our precious Bristol Bay and murder thousands of our fish.

Did the much reviled Pebble Mine project just die with a whimper and not a bang?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

A 15-year fight to mine for gold along Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay might have just ended — with a whimper. 

Canadian mining firm Northern Dynasty Minerals has been a hot topic in investment advice since Election Day. The company’s stock jumped 326 percent after Donald Trump’s victory, as newsletters feverishly pitched the company’s prospects under the new regime. One even went so far as to label the stock “Trump’s Gold.” 

But Northern Dynasty’s long-planned gold and copper mine, located inside a key salmon spawning habitat, is less a secret fortune-maker and more an elaborate pump-and-dump stock scheme, investment analysts from Kerrisdale Capital said Tuesday. 

“All this enthusiasm is misplaced. We believe Northern Dynasty is worthless,” the analysts said in the note. Despite the stock jump, the company is actually “worth nothing because its key asset is not commercially viable.”

Well that's a little underwhelming. And yet gratifying. 

However it should be noted that this project has changed hands at least three times in the last fifteen years, and faced court orders and numerous protests, and yet it still refuses to completely die despite almost universal opposition from the Alaskan people. 

So is this it? Could this be the final nail in this project's coffin?

Well damn I hope so.

Among those who are hopeful about a Trump presidency, the folks behind the Pebble Mine.

Courtesy of ADN: 

The companies behind a decade-long effort to build a massive gold and copper mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region are hoping the new administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump will breath new life into their struggling efforts. 

Trump was adamant during his campaign that he would pull back government oversight for natural resource projects, limiting the scope of environmental regulations and slowdowns that stand in their way. His pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has been a staunch courtroom opponent of what he sees as federal overreach. 

So now, the company is "hopeful," said Mike Heatwole, vice president for public affairs with Pebble Limited Partnership, the company created to ferry the project through to its golden end.

I imagine this is how a lot of companies behind potentially environmentally hazardous projects.

The Pebble Mine, the Keystone Pipeline, drilling in ANWR, there is no telling the number of environmentally damaging programs the Trump administration might okay before they are replaced with a more intelligent and Eco-friendly administration.

In other words, a Democratic one.

President Obama just used a Presidential Memorandum to protect Alaska's Bristol Bay.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

In a YouTube video released Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced a ban on future oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska by way of a Presidential Memorandum. 

Bristol Bay is the most productive wild salmon fishery in the world, and is surrounded by sensitive tundra. Environmental groups and Native Alaskans have been working for years to secure protection for the area. “Bristol Bay has supported Native Americans in the Alaska region for centuries," Obama said in the video announcement. 

"It supports about $2 billion in the commercial fishing industry. It supplies America with 40 percent of its wild-caught seafood." "It is a beautiful natural wonder, and its something that is too precious for us to just be putting out to the highest bidder," Obama said.

Apparently this does not extend to mineral mining so it will not stop the Pebble Mine, though it may not make a difference since the EPA is already on that case.

Well I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that a certain half term governor/failed reality star is certainly going to have a rant about this in the next couple of hours or so.

However I will also say that Obama just made a lot of native Alaskans, commercial fishermen, and nature lovers very, very happy.

The prospects are high in Alaska for a Mark Begich victory in 2014. Get it, high.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

If Alaska Democrat Mark Begich wins re-election to the U.S. Senate, he may have Republican state legislators to thank. 

Because the Alaska Legislature failed to gavel out by its statutory deadline last week, the November ballot has morphed into an electoral blockbuster. Three initiatives that were supposed to appear in the August primary have been bumped to the general election. So now, on top of deciding whether they want reelect a Democrat in a year where Republicans could seize control of Congress, Alaskans will be voting on initiatives to increase the minimum wage, to allow the sale of marijuana, and to make it harder to build an unpopular open-pit mine near the world’s largest salmon run. 

Any one of those initiatives could be seen as a gift to Democrats. Together, they could boost turnout by up to 5 percent, according to political scientist Caroline Tolbert. 

“The conditions are ripe for these ballot measure to potentially shape the races in 2014,” says Tolbert, a professor at the University of Iowa. 

While Alaska is uniquely difficult to survey, the polls that have been done on those initiatives show they’re popular in the state. They do especially well with younger and often more liberal voters.

I think the Republicans really crewed the pooch by allowing this marijuana vote to make it onto the ballot in November. Alaskans may be apathetic about a lot of things, but getting high is not one of them.

And with Colorado already seeing huge revenues and positive outcomes from their choice to legalize pot, Alaskans are definitely poised to join the party.

Add to that the votes on the minimum wage and the Pebble Mine, and this would appear to be a blowout for the progressives.

So with that in mind, IF this election goes another way for Begich, Alaskans MUST be ready to challenge the results and attempt to finally do away with the election fraud that has plagued this state for decades. 

Rats continue jumping from the sinking ship that is the Pebble Mine.

Courtesy of ADN:  

Global mining giant Rio Tinto is pulling out of the Pebble mine project in Alaska, the latest blow to the controversial plan to build an open pit mine in the best wild salmon stronghold in the world. 

Rio Tinto said Monday that it will donate its share in the project to a pair of Alaskan non-profits, the Alaska Community Foundation and the Bristol Bay Native Corp. Education Foundation. 

Rio Tinto's decision comes after the Environmental Protection Agency moved closer in recent weeks to blocking the mine. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Pebble would "likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on the salmon of Bristol Bay." She said her agency would decide on action to protect the salmon under the Clean Water Act, which could lead to a veto of the project. 

The British mining powerhouse Anglo American pulled out of the Pebble project last year. Now Rio Tinto is abandoning the effort as well, saying Monday "the Pebble Project does not fit with Rio Tinto's strategy." 

What? Gouging giant trenches in the pristine Alaska wilderness and possible poisoning an important fishing area does not fit with Rio Tinto's strategy?

Actually I think, that in most cases, it does.

Freeport Mine, a Rio Tinto joint venture.

What I don't think is in their strategy is to have the EPA block their efforts, and for thousands of residents to be actively attempting to protect the surrounding environment.

Ever since Sarah Palin helped to derail the initiative that would have stopped the Pebble Mine in its tracks, Alaskans have been fighting to keep it from going forward.

Today it looks like that has finally come to pass.

Just another left over Palin mess that Alaskans have been working to clean up a whole five years after she quit her job as Governor.

EPA moves to officially block the Pebble Mine.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it is beginning a process that could block a massive proposed gold mine in Alaska from being built. 

The Pebble Mine is a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine that could be up to 2 miles long, a mile and a half wide, and 1,700 feet deep -- the largest of its type in North America. The proposed site for the mine is at the headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak rivers, which feed into the Bristol Bay. It is the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, producing nearly half of the world's wild sockeye. 

The EPA said Friday that it is invoking Clean Water Act protections that would stop its construction, citing concerns about the threat it poses to the bay and the fish that depend on it. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that the agency is taking the step to "ensure that the world's most productive salmon fishery is safe from the risks it faces from what could be one of the largest mines on Earth" in a call with reporters Friday afternoon. 

McCarthy cited threats to the region's multimillion-dollar fishing industry, as well as to native cultures that rely on the bay. The agency released a scientific assessment of the bay and proposed mine in mid-January, which McCarthy said provided "ample reason for EPA to believe that a mine of the size and scope of Pebble Mine would have significant and irreversible impacts on Bristol Bay."

And that should be the end of that.

This has been going on for years and it seems that everybody, except a handful of  politicians including Sarah Palin, have been speaking out against this since it first became known.

Alaska natives, fishermen, and environmentalists have been beating the drum, and finally it looks like the EPA is going to put their foot down and stop this potential environmental disaster BEFORE it can poison our water and kill our salmon.

I think Alaskans everywhere will be celebrating this decision. 

New study may prove to be the death knell for the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. If fish could applaud they would be doing so.

Bristol Bay

Courtesy of the Juneau Empire: 

A government report indicates a large-scale copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could have devastating effects on the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery and adversely affect Alaska Natives, whose culture is built around salmon. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its final assessment of the impact of mining in the Bristol Bay region. Its findings are similar to those of an earlier draft report, concluding that, depending on the size of the mine, up to 94 miles of streams would be destroyed in the mere build-out of the project, including losses of between 5 and 22 miles of streams known to provide salmon spawning and rearing habitat. Up to 5,350 acres of wetlands, ponds and lakes also would be lost due to the mine footprint. 

The report concludes that “large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses significant near- and long-term risk to salmon, wildlife and Native Alaska cultures,” EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said in a conference call with reporters. 

The battle over the proposed Pebble Mine has been waged for years and extended beyond Alaska’s borders, with environmental activists like actor Robert Redford opposing development. Multinational jewelers have said they won’t use minerals mined from the Alaska prospect, and pension fund managers from California and New York City last year asked London-based Rio Tinto, a shareholder of mine owner Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., to divest, a request Rio Tinto said it planned to consider. 

This battle over the Pebble Mine has been waging now for over five years, and it may never have even began if Sarah Palin had not interfered in the the early initiative process: 

The two sides spent more than $10 million -- unprecedented for such efforts in Alaska -- and throughout it all, the state's highly popular first-term governor, Sarah Palin, held back. Alaska law forbids state officials from using state resources to advocate on ballot initiatives. 

Then, six days before the Aug. 26 vote, with the race looking close, Palin broke her silence. Asked about the initiative at a news conference, she invoked "personal privilege" to give an opinion. "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 -- I vote no on that," she said. "I have all the confidence in the world that [the Department of Environmental Conservation] and our [Department of Natural Resources] have great, very stringent regulations and policies already in place. We're going to make sure that mines operate only safely, soundly." 

Palin's comments rocked the contest. Within a day, the pro-mining coalition fighting the referendum had placed full-page ads with a picture of the governor and the word "NO." The initiative went down to defeat, with 57 percent of voters rejecting it. 

Three days later, Palin was named Republican Sen. John McCain's running mate, throwing Alaska into a media frenzy. But the fallout has lingered from an episode that may stand as one of the most consequential in Palin's 21-month tenure. The state ethics panel is examining whether her comments violated the law against state advocacy on ballot measures; it had already ruled that a state Web site was improperly slanted toward mining interests.

So one of Palin's last acts before being tapped by McCain was to help start a war up here between the fishermen and the supporters of the Pebble Mine. And people wonder why Alaskans dislike her so much.

Anyhow this new report might be the nail that we have been searching for to finally close the coffin on the Pebble Mine for good.

At least I certainly hope so.

Alaska's richest man blasts Sarah Palin for double crosssing her fellow Alaskans. Update!

Courtesy of the National Enquirer:

Alaska’s richest man is blasting Sarah Palin for failing to avert a po­tentially devastating environmental disaster in the state she once governed – and now he wants ENQUIRER readers’ help to get the job done! 

In an exclusive interview, Bob Gillam, founder of McKinley Capital Management and a staunch envi­ronmentalist, alleged that a foreign mining venture called Pebble Mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay is believed to be threatening the habitat of the salmon-filled natural wonder. 

“Sarah double-crossed us,” he says. 

“When she was governor, Sarah told me on more than one occasion her daughter Bristol was named after Bristol Bay and she would never do anything to hurt the area, especially since she had a salmon fishing permit herself,” said Gillam. 

The benevolent billionaire fears the toxic waste from the site could leak into the water after one of Alaska’s regular earthquakes, killing half of the world’s wild salmon. The pink-fleshed fish is the dietary staple of the more than 15,000 aboriginal Alaskans who live around the bay.

The residents of our state are STILL feeling the aftershocks of Palin's time as our Governor.

That bullshit movie put out by Steve Bannon notwithstanding, REAL Alaskans know she was devastating to our state's reputation, its people, and possibly even our future.

You might believe that my last point is mere hyperbole, but if the plans for the Pebble Mine are allowed to move forward, for many Alaskans living off the waters of Bristol Bay that is EXACTLY what her legacy will mean to their way of life.

And don't think for a moment that the blame for this ecosystem killing disaster does not rest completely on the Grizzled Mama's shoulders, because it does.

This from a report written by environmentalist Bill Sherwonit explains how hard our half term Governor pushed for this project:

Pebble Mine opponents hoped to cripple the project with Measure 4, which would have strictly limited the pollutants that metal mines could discharge into streams and drinking water. But the mining interests’ massive advertising campaign successfully painted Measure 4 as an extreme initiative that threatened the state’s mining industry and its 5,500 jobs. In addition to speaking out against the measure and allowing her image to be used in mining industry advertisements, Gov. Palin also allowed her Department of Natural Resources to promote a “no” vote on its Web site. The Alaska Public Offices Commission later ordered the department to take down its statement of support. Palin’s critics said her involvement in the ballot measure was a misuse of her power and violated the spirit of the constitutional ban prohibiting state officials from getting involved in citizen initiatives.

This is just part of the deadly legacy that Sarah Palin left the people of Alaska. Just as she left the city of Wasilla 20 million dollars in debt after serving as the worst mayor they ever had.

You may still be able to find a few people in the lower forty eight who still believe Palin's lies, but in Alaska we learned who she was the hard way. And it is a lesson that we are helping to teach others before it is too late.

Thankfully, it appears they have been listening.

Update: Somebody asked how we can help.  Here you go:

HOW YOU CAN HELP: ENQUIRER readers wishing to speak out can write the Renewable Resources Coalition at 605 West 2nd Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501, or e-mail info@renewable resourcescoalition.org. Alaskan Governor Sean Parnell can be reached at: Governor Sean Parnell, P.O. Box 110001, Juneau, AK 99811-0001. E-mail: sean.parnell@alaska.gov.

ADN writes article about Shannyn Moore's shocking expose on the Pebble Mine initiative. Well good at least they are linking to SOME progressive blogs!

Alaska blogger and Pebble opponent Shannyn Moore two days ago wrote a provocative blog postabout Tim Griffin, an Outside Republican strategist and former DOJ attorney who mentioned to an Arkansas journalist that he worked on the anti-Ballot Measure 4 media campaign last year.

Moore basically traces his past political activities and questions why Griffin would come to Alaska for the “clean water” Measure 4 fight.

She writes:

Wow! So Karl Rove’s right hand man and special assistant to George W. Bush, under Congressional investigation for felony vote caging, got on a plane “over 20 times last year” to work against Ballot Proposition 4, the Clean Water Initiative? That’s a pretty big gun to get on that many flights – even if they were first class seats. Tim Griffin basically spent 40 days from May to August on planes going back and forth between Anchorage and Little Rock!
So what ties does Griffin have to Alaska, Moore asks.

I am so proud of my pal Shannyn that I could burst! This is a very important, and potentially history making story, and SHE is the one that broke it.

I certainly hope that ADN keeps that in mind when they decide whether to link to our blogs or not.

Update: I just talked to Shannyn and she would really like to have people show up to Tanglewood Gold Chalet at 11801 Brayton Drive for a very important town hall meeting on sustainable fisheries and sulfside mines. I am REALLY going to try and make it so I hope to see as many of you there as possible. (Here is the google map link)

The very controversial Pebble mine may prove to be yet another empty promise of vast riches for Alaskans.

The copper and gold prospect in salmon-rich Southwest Alaska holds about 72 billion pounds of copper and 94 million ounces of gold, according to the estimate published Thursday by one of the companies advancing Pebble.

What's the value of all that metal?

At today's swooning metal prices, Pebble's mineral resource is still worth about $236 billion. But six months ago, when metal prices were soaring, the same amount of copper, gold and molybdenum was worth $500 billion.

Those numbers don't include the cost of prying the metal from the rock or harnessing the electricity needed to power a massive, remote mine. The project -- deeply controversial for some Alaskans because of its location near the headwaters of two rivers that feed the world-class Bristol Bay salmon fisheries -- could turn out to be uneconomical to build despite the huge value of the minerals there. The mining companies with rights to Pebble are a couple of years away from deciding whether to build a mine.

Pebble critics include commercial and sport fishermen, villages located downstream of the mine, environmentalists and hunters. Many of them hope to prevent any future mining in the drainages where Pebble is located because they are worried about a mine polluting salmon streams.

Alaskans must seem like the biggest rubes on the planet.

It seems like every charlatan, Three Card Monte dealer, and get rich quick schemer eventually finds his way to our beautiful state with its abundant resources.

From the days of the Gold Rush, where thousands of hearty prospectors found crippling conditions and sometimes death, to the various big time operators promising Alaskans a life of eternal leisure if they will just sign away the mineral rights that seem to be in every body's backyard, the promise of fast money and streets paved with gold have been a part of life in the Last Frontier since well before the days of statehood.

For many who consider themselves Sourdoughs this is all taken with a grain of salt, but for the new comers who followed the smell of oil money up here, these are the opportunities of a lifetime. Sadly it seems that many of Alaska's voters and politicians fall into that second category. Fools who are waiting to be parted from their money.

Sure the oil pipeline was definitely a scheme which paid off huge dividends, but ever since then every other roll of the dice has come up snake eyes.

And yes I include the much touted, and very unlikely, gas pipeline as a roll of the dice which is going to crap out. And cost us enormously.

The idea has merit, but it was poorly constructed and, as it currently stands, doomed to failure. Here is but the latest obstacle standing in the way of progress on this shiniest of Alaska's "we are all going to get rich" schemes.

Frank Richards, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, told legislators in June that $2 billion would be required for infrastructure work to prepare for gas pipeline construction.

And that is on top of a 500 million dollar investment that Alaska has already promised to get the ball rolling for TransCanada to start construction on a gas pipeline.

So to sum up, before ANYTHING can even begin on this huge financial gamble, Alaskans have placed 2.5 billion dollars on the table. And with oil prices dropping like an anchor, exactly how much longer is our oil money cushion going to last? A loss like this wil lsurely be followed by even more money being funneld into the project before its final death rattle.

So do I have faith that the Pebble Mine is every going to make any real money for Alaskans? No.

Do I think it will even be built? Not anytime soon.

Do I think that there are better places for Alaskans to invest there rapidly dwindling resources? Yep!

What are they? Alternative energy resources. Alaska has the potential to lead the nation in developing alternative energy for this country. But to do it, Alaska needs to cut the oil umbilical cord and move in a fresh direction, with a reasonable, and well thought out plan.

No more half baked schemes conceived by tricksters who have one foot out of the door even as they shake your hand to seal the deal, no we need to come together and make this happen on our own. We have the resources, and the expertise (Alaskans are incredible inventive), we simply need the will.