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?

For the first time in recorded history there have been no commercial fishing fatalities in Alaska. And yes that IS a big deal.

Source

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

For the first year-long period on record, from Oct. 1, 2014, through the end of September 2015, the Coast Guard recorded zero operations-related commercial fishing fatalities in Alaska, a milestone in an industry known for its “Deadliest Catch” persona. 

In an article in Alaska Fish & Wildlife News, published by the state Department of Fish & Game, the change is credited partly to management practices that have been making the industry safer for years. But also, the article notes, fewer people are fishing. 

Through much of the 1980s, an average of 31 fishermen died in Alaska each year, according to the report.

All of my life I have been told that you could make some REAL money commercial fishing, if you survived that is. 

And yes the deaths were numerous, and I knew at least one person who never made it back from one particular fishing season.

Over the years the number of deaths has slowly decreased though even back in 2008 commercial fishing was referred to as the deadliest job in America.

Really hard to tell if the reason for this milestone has more to do with safety precautions or the fact that there are far fewer boats on the water.

Either way, it is indeed a milestone.