Backers of Alaska gold mine win court battle with EPA

[Dakota Slim]

From http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/26/backers-alaska-gold-mine-win-court-battle-with-epa/

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.

“Instrumental to this scheme was EPA’s clandestine use of the de facto advisory committees – made up of individuals and groups who have been vehemently opposed to any mining of the Pebble deposit – to help the agency plan and then implement unprecedented steps designed to guarantee that no mining of the Pebble deposit would ever take place,” the company’s lawsuit claims.

Holland’s preliminary injunction order indicates he believes Pebble Partnership has a chance to prove its case. But EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Colaizzi expressed doubt that the judge will ultimately side with the mining company.

“EPA hopes the litigation is resolved expeditiously so the agency can move forward with its regulatory decision-making,” she said in an e-mail to McClatchy News Service.

Supporters of the mine, which would be the largest open pit mine ever dug and would reach Grand Canyon-level depths, say it would yield more than 100 million ounces of gold, 80 billion pounds of copper and other precious minerals. But critics, including Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., say it would damage the ecosystem of Bristol Bay and threaten 14,000 fishing jobs. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who sought to regulate the mine out of development using the agency's authority under the Clean Water Act, has said it would be devastating to the region's environment.

Mining giants Anglo American and Rio Tinto, part of the original Pebble Partnership, have backed out, Northern Dynasty Minerals looking for financial backing to keep the project alive.

Controversy over the EPA's role in the project surfaced this summer, when a former EPA official suspected of being involved in the agency's effort to kill the mine went mysteriously off the grid, when lawmakers sought to question him. Emails from Phillip North, a now-retired Environmental Protection Agency employee, seem to show the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project scrapped as far back as 2008. Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper mine project, it did so based on scientific evidence.

Emails from North’s account show that he “appeared to have played a key role in the EPA’s decision to pursue a veto,” Caitlin Carroll, a spokeswoman for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told FoxNews.com. North still has not been located to explain his role in the affair.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Dakota Slim

[ddog]

Big Brother knows what's best for stupid Americans!!!!! Obama Care, EPA,FHA Kalif. DREDGING we must take our country back before there is not one to take back.. Keep votein the BAST--DS out but most off the new ones are showed the error of their ways real fast by the GOOD OL BOYS [elites]. Almost time for some REAL civil UNREST, if you know what I mean. Semper Fi

[Hoser John]

Just another chapter in the game of lies and deception,nuttn' new here...sic sic sic-John

[El Dorado]

John....what is new here is that a federal judge slapped the EPA on their weenie! Not a very common happening these days, needs tohappen much much more

[Dakota Slim]

John....what is new here is that a federal judge slapped the EPA on their weenie! Not a very common happening these days, needs tohappen much much more

Exactly. The enviro's have been inventing dubious evidence to support their political agenda -- and getting away with it -- for too long.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Dakota Slim

[homefire]

Problem is the EPA has endless supply of funding and will just ware the miners down.

[Hoser John]

Just like the dredge ban, just yet another chapter in the book of lies. More appeals and bs a coming as this saga(NO MATTER HOW RIGHTEOUS A DEAL IT IS) can,will and always had the environutz panties all upn' a bind and the fight against the mine is many years from done We are in the midst of a 100 year project fight here in Redding(Moody Complex) and the fight has drug on for over 3 years now and on and on. Trouble is with these fantastic projects---who is gonna run outta cash first--the miner or the government who prints that tp 24/7?? John

[Gold Nuggets]

it all boils down to the long range plan that the Feds have to control

EVERY aspect of everyone's life and allow them have all the power. No

free-thinkers allowed, No mining allowed, no food, clothing or shelter

allowed unless the Feds provide it for you. We can all be one big,

happy family under Fed rules and Regs cus they know best........B.S.!

STOP 'em NOW before they get too powerful and just re-write the

Constitution completely.....

[Micro Nugget]

It sure would be interesting to examine e-mail correspondence that took place between the F&W (formerly F&G) regulation drafters and the various suction dredge opponents several years ago.

[El Dorado]

Those emails have probably been lost in crashed computers

[Hoser John]

Just go to F/W website,under dredging,there are all correspondence and minutes from the 2 illegal meetings held when PROFESSIONAL miners and manufacturers were asking for MORE REGS on highbanking multiple times-can we say idjets as asking for more regs when meetings were to eliminate/minimize regs but NOT like 1994 meetings for sure-John

[Hoser John]

MINE STOPPED AGAIN WITH EPA INJUNCTION FRIDAY- if I said how I REALLY feel Bill'd have to throw me off this forum FOREVER. No matter how righteous the deed if it's got anything to do with mining it gets shot in the arse sic sic sic sic sic ...................................... John

[Gold Nuggets]

Know that you are not alone in your feelings about the FEDS and Mining John.....

They aren't gonna stop chipping away at things until they have the whole thing

under their control.