May 31, 2022 — Alaska’s two Republican senators came out against EPA’s proposed veto of the Pebble copper and gold mine near Bristol Bay even though they oppose the project’s development.
EPA on Wednesday proposed using the Clean Water Act to veto mining in the Bristol Bay watershed in southwestern Alaska, citing irreparable damage to the area’s valuable salmon fishery.
But even though Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan don’t want Pebble to advance, they see the Biden EPA’s plan as a heavy-handed federal government intervention that could stymie future resource development in Alaska.
Murkowski said EPA’s action “is one way to further prevent the Pebble mine from moving forward” but provides “no guarantee that a future administration will not revoke it.” Murkowski said she has “never supported a blanket, preemptive approach for any project.”
“My concern has always been that this could be used as precedent to target resource development projects across our state,” she said, asserting the “only lasting path” to stop the mine for good would be “a stakeholder-led process that seeks consensus and helps avoid years of further division.”