Blog Post

Today on the Alaskan Political blog Mudflats.com, the author has penned a great article dealing with Pebble and Ballot Measure #4. He writes,

The fates have delivered me the opportunity to actually utilize my semester’s worth of time, and calculator batteries, to vote a confident YES on Proposition 4.

If you need any further convincing:

The proposed Pebble Mine site is located at the headwaters that flow into the Nushagak River, Lake Iliamna, and Bristol Bay (home of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery). You don’t need to be an expert to understand that contaminants, like the water they are in, tend to flow downstream. Oh, yes…and the mine’s giant earthen dam holding all those contaminants in, is also located on a fault line.

According to the EPA, mining has contaminated the headwaters of 40% of watersheds in the Western United States. FORTY percent. Are you willing to risk the Nushagak River, Lake Iliamna and Bristol Bay on those odds? Not me.

What about other similar hard rock mines? Well, a recent study of 25 modern hard rock mines showed that 76% exceeded water quality standards. SEVENTY SIX PERCENT. This is not a pretty picture.

To read the full article CLICK HERE.

A Bird's Eye View of the Pebble Mine Site

Pebble Mine Plan Superimposed on Anchorage, Alaska

Pebble Mine Plan (in black) Compared With Other Gold Mines

The fascinating website http://skytruth.mediatools.org/ has some wonderful satellite images of the proposed Pebble Mine site. Just looking at them gives you a true appreciation of the impact this mine will make on our region. I've included some of the images above on this post, but if you care to see them all CLICK HERE.

Both Sides Pour Resources into the Pebble Fight

There are two sides in the fight over the proposed Pebble Mine – the mining industry and its various foes. Both factions realize the stakes involved so, not surprisingly, vast amounts of money are being poured into the rival campaigns. How much money you ask? It is estimated that both sides have spent a combined total of $3.6 million; a hefty sum to spend in Alaska. Statistics show that this figure is more than groups raised for all four statewide ballot measures in 2006 (year that saw substantial fights over natural gas and cruise ship taxation) and more than was spent by all the candidates in the hard fought Republican primary of that year.

This costly political battle is resulting in Alaskans being inundated by TV, print and radio ads. Movies have even been produced on the subject (I'm a fan of Red Gold). Voters have recently started receiving large brochures in the mail asking them to fill out mining surveys, and absentee ballots so they might vote early.

The pro Pebble pockets are deep ones, continually filled by the large mining corporations and the board members of the nefarious Pebble Partnership who have the most to lose should Ballot Measure #4 pass. Another big pro Pebble interest is Alaskans Against Mining Shut Down (another mine industry shill group).

Does He Feel the Same Way About Salmon?

Yesterday I posted a story about the Pebble Partnership and how it bought off Ken Taylor, a deputy commissioner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, with a cushy vice presidential gig at the partnership. It turns out that Mr. Taylor has never been particularly 'keen' on protecting the environment - which makes him an odd choice to work at the fish & game department, but I digress.

Here's an article about his involvement with the polar bear debate during his time as a state official published in January of this year in the Anchorage Daily News,

But Taylor, the Palin administration's point man on polar bears, argues that the scientific justification simply isn't there -- at least not yet -- to declare the polar bear "threatened" and touch off a cascade of effects under the Endangered Species Act. A decision on the bears is expected from the U.S. Department of the Interior in the next few weeks.

"From my perspective, it's very difficult to put a population on the list that's healthy, based on a projection 45 years into the future," Taylor says. "That's really stretching scientific credibility."

If he doesn't want to look out for polar bears, can we expect him to give flying fig about salmon?

Pebble Partnership Head, John Shively, Buys Off Alaskan Official

John Shivley, the head of the infamous Pebble Partnership, has hired a fresh new face for his outfit – but in actuality he’s buying off a state official. The Pebble Blog at the Anchorage Daily News reports,

Ken Taylor, a deputy commissioner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has taken a job as the Pebble Partnership's vice president for
environment.

Ken Taylor was recently profiled in the Daily News due
to his role as the Palin administration's "point man" on the status of polar
bears.

To read the full story click here.

Now there may be some among you who accuse me of rushing to judgment regarding Mr. Shively; that I’m automatically assuming the worst and that there’s no reason to assume he’d be using this job to buy off Ken Taylor. Yet, we know from history that John Shivley has no problem lying under oath or striking corrupt bargains with officials.

You see, Shively used to be chief of staff to Governor Sheffield back in 1985. During his time in that position, a grand jury began an investigation into Sheffield. Later, that same grand jury found that Governor Sheffield had improperly intervened on behalf of a union leader when the Governor’s office awarded the union boss a $10 million no-bid contract.

Initially, both Sheffield and Shively denied committing any crime and Sheffield refused to accept Shively’s resignation. Shively refused to testify against Sheffield until granted immunity and when he got it, he admitted under oath that he had lied to investigators on a number of occasions about Sheffield’s behavior. He also admitted to throwing official documents away in his trash can when a reporter asked to see them. If anyone should have been indicted, it was Shively.

We also have some good info on Ken Taylor, which I’ll share with you tomorrow.

Anglo American and Human Rights Abuse

Anglo American owns and operates the Colombia’s Cerrejon mine – the largest open pit coal mine in the world. Cerrejon represents one of Anglo’s biggest money makers, and the story of its construction is very illustrative of the mining giant’s moral depravity. You see, in order to make way for the Cerrejon mine, Anglo American bulldozed a farming community and later admitted to not compensating any of the families for their property.

The village was named Tabaco, a sustainable farming community populated by Afro-Colombians. The village had a school, health clinic, telephone exchange and, most importantly for the inhabitants, good farmland. None of that, however, kept Anglo, and Sir Mark Moody Stuart, Anglo’s Chairman of the Board, from completely leveling the community in 2001.

Afterwards, Moody Stuart said that the displacement was not ‘perfectly executed’. He also said that only a small number of inhabitants were compensated for their loss of property. To call these understatements would be, in and of itself, an understatement.

Interviews conducted with over 60 families from Cerrejon after the town’s destruction revealed that none of the families had been reimbursed. What is even more frightening is that the Cerrejon mine is expected to expand – and the mine’s growth could eventually lead to the destruction of four more villages. I wonder if Anglo is going to treat the pristine ecosystem of Bristol Bay with the same disregard as they did the people of Cerrejon.

People of Bristol Bay take heed.