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EPA Blocks Long-Disputed Mine Project in Alaska (nytimes.com) 62

The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to protect one of the world's most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a gold and copper mine there. From a report: The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final determination under the Clean Water Act that bans the disposal of mine waste in part of the bay's watershed, about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Streams in the watershed are crucial breeding grounds for salmon, but the area also contains deposits of precious-metal ores thought to be worth several hundred billion dollars.

A two-decades old proposal to mine those ores, called the Pebble project, has been supported by some Alaskan lawmakers and Native groups for the economic benefits it would bring, but opposed by others, including tribes around the bay and environmentalists who say it would do irreparable harm to the salmon population. Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, which has long opposed the mine, said the decision "was a real moment of justice for us." She said the tribes had long been told that "we just need to fall in line" and that the mine was inevitable. "Thank goodness our tribal leaders did not accept that," Ms. Hurley said. "We'll be celebrating this decision for decades to come."

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EPA Blocks Long-Disputed Mine Project in Alaska

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  • So there! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 )

    If corporations can be people, then so can fish!

  • I give it a few years and with new mining technology we'll see this kind of decision as mute.

    Why?

    There's typically 180lb of copper in each Tesla.
    There's 1900lb of copper in a 1.5MW wind turbine.

    You can't go green without leaving a few holes in the earth.

    • Re:World Demand (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @03:33PM (#63254721)

      I’d rather have salmon free of heavy metals than a 2% cheaper Tesla.

      • Salmon full of heavy metals would be the best case scenario. Salmon disappearing forever from these rivers was the concern. Some of the rivers are where the hatchlings are born and grow before they head into the ocean. Disrupting the early life cycle of salmon development may mean salmon would no longer exist in the wild.
      • Of course, the Mercury already in salmon isn't a problem?

      • The point is you won't have a Tesla at all. Nor will you have the all-electric economy you claim you want.

        Unless of course you are intending to revert to the business model of the East India Company and do a good old-fashioned rape and pillage exercise on the less developed world. If you do propose this you should at least have the honesty to admit it.

        As in "Resolved, I demand the rest of the planet be mined, deforested and otherwise polluted as needed so that I may continue to enjoy my current or better li

        • by znrt ( 2424692 )

          The point is you won't have a Tesla at all. Nor will you have the all-electric economy you claim you want.

          wait ... no tesla at all? the horror! is it already time for collective suicide?

        • ...

          Unless of course you are intending to revert to the business model of the East India Company and do a good old-fashioned rape and pillage exercise on the less developed world....

          That's what they were doing, only in this case the "less developed world" was just Alaska. What, you thought that colonialism only affected other countries?

      • Is there really no way to have both?
    • You can't go green without leaving a few holes in the earth.

      Which leaves more holes in the earth, green or not green? I don't actually know, but I'm curious.

      The statement might have to read, "If you go green you'll leave fewer holes in the earth... but not zero."

    • > There's typically 180lb of copper in each Tesla.

      The 2030 Green New Deal agenda requires all copper mined until 2169 at current rates.

      Approving new mines is needed to change those rates.

  • by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Tuesday January 31, 2023 @04:03PM (#63254853)

    The state and land owners will sue. It will be fought in the courts for years or until the next GOP administration overrides the EPA. And then we'll be back in the courts again.

    • The state and land owners will sue

      The owners for the land we're talking about is (checks notes) the US Federal government. I don't think I need to say much more past that.

      until the next GOP administration overrides the EPA

      It's not solely a matter of the EPA. This is part of the Bureau of Land Management as well for ownership. Congress can pass a law that gives the land to the State of Alaska, but in doing that the US Government stands to lose out on some cash. Something both parties do not like. If they attach strings to the land, there has to be an agency to oversee it (or not and we

  • Or merely deprive them the full use of their property? Pollution aside, this is about property rights.
    • Did the EPA Buy Out the Land Owner?

      No the US Government has owned the land since the acquisition from Russia in 1867. So the owner is the US Government, no need for the EPA to buy them out since they're part of the thing that owns the land.

  • The right to stake a mining claim on Federal land goes back to the beginning of time. The issue here is how they run the mine.

  • Yay, it turns out there are some things more important than a few more coins in the pockets of the rich.

It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river. -- Abraham Lincoln

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