Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Backers of Alaska gold mine win court battle with EPA
Fox News ^ | November 26, 2014

Posted on 11/26/2014 8:54:14 AM PST by jazusamo

On-again, off-again plans for the world's largest gold and copper mine could be back on again, after a federal judge in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from its ongoing efforts to bury the project.

Pebble Partnership, the Canadian company behind the project, which would take place near Anchorage, claims the regulatory agency has conspired illegally with opponents of the mine to devise scientific and environmental justifications for blocking it. Salmon fishermen in Washington state and Alaska, Native American groups and environmental organizations have opposed the massive project for several years, and had appeared to have gotten it scuttled prior to Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Russel Holland, in Anchorage.

“We expect the case may take several months to complete,” Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said Tuesday after the U.S. District Court ruling in Anchorage. “This means that, for the first time, EPA’s march to preemptively veto Pebble has been halted.”

Holland's ruling stops the EPA from taking action against the project until he makes a decision on Pebble’s lawsuit claiming the agency broke the law to stop the mine. Pebble Partnership's lawsuit claims the EPA secretly relied on opponents of the mine to help craft a “patently biased” environmental assessment that determined the project could be devastating for the salmon of Bristol Bay.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: alaska; bristolbay; copper; corruption; epa; ginamccarthy; gold; injunction; judgeholland; pebblemine; phillipnorth
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last
To: jazusamo

Everything you say may be true but the fact is Phillip North has bugged out and will not back up his findings nor will the EPA due to his missing emails.


21 posted on 11/26/2014 9:51:58 AM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: PIF

Ping to post #21.


22 posted on 11/26/2014 9:53:24 AM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
My background is in coal mining so I generally support mineral development. But from what I've read (setting aside the EPA’s actions) there is massive risk to one of the world's largest and finest fisheries if one of the mine’s dams springs a leak.
23 posted on 11/26/2014 9:59:48 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: oldfart

Thanks for that information. Didn’t know about that.


24 posted on 11/26/2014 10:07:51 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (Has anyone seen my tagline? It was here yesterday. I seem to have misplaced it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

Thanks! If there is a true environmental concern, then it should be the issue, and I agree the EPA and others should be prosecuted for not properly following the law.


25 posted on 11/26/2014 10:10:07 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (Has anyone seen my tagline? It was here yesterday. I seem to have misplaced it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: PIF
Most Alaskans are dead against Pebble, and everybody voted no for the oil Industry during primary election; that's much much more dangerous the Pebble Project could end up if a spill occurred.

Actually too many locals depend on the Bristol Bay fishery for their day to day sustenance; not worth the jobs created.

Imagine if every grocery in the lower 48 was infected with ebola and you all had to eat the food just because the govt said everything's just fine and dandy folks. Salmon is the main food source for people living there. Alaskans don't want outsiders or Alaskans destroying that food resource. Them Indians out there don't eat White Man's food.

26 posted on 11/26/2014 10:19:50 AM PST by Eska
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: PIF

Totally agree..Not a big fan of government but I have to agree with the protection agencies on things like this. Just like the Atlantic Salmon here in New England. Hopefully the cod fishery isn’t ruined forever. Won’t know that for awhile. People should realize that when it’s gone, it is most likely gone forever.


27 posted on 11/26/2014 10:28:50 AM PST by Rick66
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Rick66

“People should realize that when it’s gone, it is most likely gone forever.”

People in the lower 48 think like old time Key Westers - food grows in the can. They do not care as long as there are cans available - they’ll eat it whatever is in it.

They think that the food they buy is always there in the grocery stores, which food somehow appears on the shelves ... the rest of it never occurs to them, as it doesn’t seem to affect their daily life. They stood by while the enviros shut down San Joaquin valley farmers and never blinked when the price of vegetables rose and the quality fell.

If pizza was a vegetable grown in San Joaquin, or beer was a fish caught in AK, and both of those were taken away or destroyed to make room for a minnow or a mine, they’d howl so loud that the WH walls would shake, Congress critters would find their shorts around their collective ankles and so on.


28 posted on 11/26/2014 10:51:48 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Eska

“Imagine if every grocery in the lower 48 was infected with ebola and you all had to eat the food just because the govt said everything’s just fine and dandy folks”

They’d beleive and eat it anyway; the govenment doesn’t lie ...


29 posted on 11/26/2014 10:53:48 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: PIF

Thats pure propaganda... you should be ashamed..

the metal deposits have been there for a millennium..
haven’t harmed the fish one bit...

You’re spouting liberal agitprop... STOP IT!..


30 posted on 11/26/2014 12:47:17 PM PST by hosepipe (" This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole.. ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

Bookmark.


31 posted on 11/26/2014 1:19:41 PM PST by Carriage Hill ( Some days you're the windshield, and some days you're the bug.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe
You are right on the money. 102 years ago mount Katmai blew up and dumped two and a half cubic miles of highly sulfuric ash and lava straight into the Bristol bay watershed.(ever hear of the valley of ten thousand smokes? I catch trout and salmon there). The lakes in the area are still stained with ash and debris and continue to be among the best salmon producers in Alaska.

Numerous creeks run off from the volcanic areas with natural PH levels below 2.5. in 1984 the summit lake (Ph2.3) of Mount Chiginagak drained into the King Salmon river. in 1985 we caught 40 million red salmon out of the drainage. The bottom line is that the fish are a whole lot less fragile. than the greenies would have you believe.

Ever here any more hype that for "Copper River Red Salmon? Besides being a brilliant marketing job, few realize that the copper river reds spawn in the tailings of the old Kennikott copper mine.

The communities of Bristol bay are another thing entirely. Six weeks of wonderful abundance are followed by 10 months of dependence, alcoholism, depression and the highest suicide rate in the country. These people could really use the year round jobs the mine would bring.

32 posted on 11/26/2014 1:20:37 PM PST by Species8472 (Ordinary acts of everyday folks keep the darkness at bay)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Gaffer; et al

I think the biggest “Help America” project could be the widespread publishing the names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses are for every EPA employee. That’s what I think.
——===00800===——
Why stop there ? ? ?


33 posted on 11/26/2014 1:39:17 PM PST by S.O.S121.500 (Had ENOUGH Yet ? ........................ Enforce the Bill of Rights ......... It's the LAW !!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PIF; hosepipe
He does not like commercial fisherman of any stripe, and commensurately lowered the award to next to nothing.

I think you had better do a little reading as to who lowered the award, in reality it was the 9th Circuit Court of appeals.

excerpt from Litigation and cleanup costs. If you read further you'll discover SCOTUS also became involved:

"Meanwhile, Exxon appealed the ruling, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the original judge, Russel Holland, to reduce the punitive damages. On December 6, 2002, the judge announced that he had reduced the damages to $4 billion, which he concluded was justified by the facts of the case and was not grossly excessive. Exxon appealed again and the case returned to court to be considered in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling in a similar case, which caused Judge Holland to increase the punitive damages to $4.5 billion, plus interest."

34 posted on 11/26/2014 1:45:23 PM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

a preliminary injunction demonstrates a high likelihood of success on the merits.

The EPA is out on this.

After 2016 a GOP administration should purge WHOLESALE the entire desk jockey ranks.


35 posted on 11/26/2014 1:51:19 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: laker_dad

Well there you go, ey.

36 posted on 11/26/2014 1:54:23 PM PST by McGruff (If you like your current Democracy you can keep it. Period.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

bump


37 posted on 11/26/2014 1:57:10 PM PST by CPT Clay (Follow me on Twitter @Clay N TX)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: longtermmemmory
After 2016 a GOP administration should purge WHOLESALE the entire desk jockey ranks.

Couldn't agree more.

38 posted on 11/26/2014 2:02:11 PM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

The only problem I have with the Pebble Mine IS...
Having a Canadian(foreign) Company bogard the venture..


39 posted on 11/26/2014 2:26:27 PM PST by hosepipe (" This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole.. ")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: hosepipe

I hear you.


40 posted on 11/26/2014 2:29:43 PM PST by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson