The voters of Alaska have spoken… for the mining industry. There is still a lot that can be done to stop Pebble Mine from being developed. The 71,456 of you who voted yes for Clean Water, for Wild Salmon and for Bristol Bay must emerge from this foreign money sponsored defeat. Spread the word. Write letters to your elected representatives. Sure our governor let her Alaskan constituents down by choosing sides 6 days before the vote. Be it her naiveté as a relative political rookie or her blatant disregard for real Alaskans. Or maybe she was swayed by the same mining lobby and industry that frankly had Murkowski in the back of their gold and copper lined pockets.
The timing of her remarks and of the state’s website ‘explaining’ the CWI #4 is very questionable. Now we are forced to rely on a permitting process that is overseen by her governorship and one that was substantially weakened by the former gov Murkowski.
All hope is not lost as I spoke to many who voted against #4 that say hell no to Pebble. Unfortunately, no law can be written that singles out the development of the one mine on everyone’s mind.
Anglo and Northern Dynasty will go through the permitting process dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s. They will make promises and compromises and assure Alaskans that their first priority is maintaining an environmentally sound open pit mining process.
To the 57% of Alaskans who put your faith in the foreign mining companies who will primarily benefit from Pebble, I truly hope they succeed in something no other mine the size of Pebble has ever been able to do. I hope the toxic pollution that is now allowed in the mixing zones (via Frank Murkowski) will somehow defy physics by not flowing by way of gravity. I hope the salmon and people who live downstream will have miraculously developed immunity to cyanide and heavy metal mining by-products.
In the end, the gravity of the situation has been veiled by the foreign mining interests and those that support these interests in our state government. Pebble can still be stopped. Pebble must be stopped.
Notable:
RP (The Big Pull) upon closer inspection of the prop 4 vote:
“Looking at the per district results, it seems the closer you get to the actual mine site, the more fervently pro 4 the votes were…
http://www.elections.alaska.gov/08prim/
…It’s a pretty strong talking point to say that those immediately affected by the mine are most in opposition. Does NDM really support localities?”
I would strongly say no to this rhetorical question. The fact is that former gov Frank Murkowski’s Executive Order effectively did away with local input. Once formidable permitting steps (put in place to protect water and salmon) are now funneled into one department (Department of Natural Resources). Alaska’s current gov Sarah Palin has the power to rescind said order but has not done so. After her remarks 6 days before the vote of her people in opposition to Clean Water, one can see why she has not taken action.
Read more on Murkowski’s Executive Order:
It is far from over my friend. One criticism I have is that the backers of the initiative needed to do a better job getting the message out. A prime example was the rally. The attendance was pitiful.
The fly fishing community alone isn’t going to stop this. That was apparent by the vote on Ballot Measure 4. A lot of folks I spoke with oppose the development of Pebble but couldn’t bring themselves to vote yes. They got caught up with the campaign.
Grassroots is the beginning but it needs more than that. To win this, we will have to convince average Joe that salmon is more precious than gold or copper.
What needs to happen is that the issue needs to rise above just an “environmental cause”. This puts a lot folks on the defensive and they lump you into the radical. They stop listening after that. The issue is more important than that. We can’t let folks trivialize this.
Alasks is unique in many ways. One way is that we are a state that relies heavily on resource development. One just needs to look at what they are getting next month – energy rebate and dividend. Lump that with the boost to the State in royalties. You get the picture. Alaska isn’t pro-mining but it is about resource development. Whether that is salmon in Bristol Bay or oil on the North Slope, we have to take that into consideration when developing a strategy to win this.
The issue around Pebble is the track record of mining. The pending disaster is real and I believe unavoidable. Folks need to understand that an accident can destroy Bristol Bay forever. How companies mitigate against accidents is to obtain insurance in the form of dollars. At the scale that Pebble is, there won’t be enough dollars to fix what may happen.
Couldn’t have picked a worse place.
Agreed D. We Alaskans love our resources. Wouldn’t be where we are without ‘em.
Yes many Alaskans got caught up with the mining industry’s well financed campaign. Too many failed to research the facts for themselves and relied instead on catchy slogans, short-sighted greed and a questionable last minute position by our governor. A co-worker came up to me all giddy this morning and said to my face ‘no for fish yes for gold!’ I held back from saying what I wanted to tell him instead I just shook my head. Sad part is he is a fisherman like us.
I am saddened to think that Alaskans were so easily swayed by unattainable promises from the mining industry let alone from Anglo with one of the worst environmental records in the world. The people against Pebble who voted no for clean water did themselves a disservice and may have inadvertently pushed the development of Pebble to the edge of a cliff.
Time to saddle up for a rough ride.
[...] http://tspey.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/down-but-not-out/ [...]
[...] Check it, yo: Down but not out… [...]
[...] the Pebble Mine. Her support of Anglo and Northern Dynasty Minerals is now common knowledge (see: http://tspey.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/down-but-not-out/) made more evident by the fact that the Palin family has taken gifts and paid trips from said [...]