JUNEAU -- Gov. Bill Walker on Wednesday defended a company-paid trip his top environmental official took last year to an anniversary celebration of the state's largest mine -- a polluter regulated by the official's department.
"The face we want to put on the state is that we're open for business," Walker said.
"We don't only show up when there's a violation. We show up when there's a celebration as well, if it's a meaningful one," he added. "If it's a milestone, I think it's appropriate."
Walker made the comments in an interview in his Capitol office also attended by Larry Hartig, the state's environmental conservation commissioner.
Hartig disclosed this month he'd accepted a gift of travel and lunch last summer from NANA, a regional Alaska Native corporation that owns the land in Northwest Alaska occupied by Red Dog Mine.
Hartig's trip was to the mine's 25th anniversary celebration, in July. The governor at the time was Sean Parnell, the incumbent defeated by Walker. But Walker said he would have authorized a similar visit.
"We're a resource state -- 90 percent of our revenue comes from resource development," Walker said. "I don't really see that it's a problem that we participate in celebration of certain milestones that add to revenues of our state and our economy."
Hartig is a former attorney for Teck, which operates the mine on land owned by NANA. He said Wednesday that he'd recused himself from "all things related to Red Dog Mine" when he joined the state's Department of Environmental Conservation -- though he said he did at one point field a request for a hearing on an appeal of one of Red Dog's permits.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is expected to issue a new preliminary wastewater discharge permit for the mine within the next month.
Walker rejected a comparison of Hartig's trip to a police chief attending an opening of a marijuana club or a liquor store, saying it was not an "analogous situation."
And asked why the state should send a regulator rather than an elected official, Walker responded: "I don't think that we have to not participate in milestones of major economies in our state. And Red Dog certainly is one."