If I was to select a single word that characterized the Dunleavy administration, the word would be ignorance. The Pebble Mine proposal is dead and designated to be that way by a host of political figures, going back to Sen. Ted Stevens, former Gov. Bill Walker and, more recently, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. The current administration is beating a dead horse on the rhetorical grounds it should be permitted because it’s been constitutionally mandated. I say balderdash.
Soon after Gov. Jay Hammond was elected, he — with bipartisan backing — bought back the oil and gas leases his predecessor had sold to oil companies who had sought to exploit fossil fuel reserves discovered in Kachemak Bay. This unprecedented buyback was done to protect the pristine doorstep leading to the fabulous Chugach State Park, as well the bay’s rich fishery resources that included at the time, king crab and side-stripped shrimp. This ethical decision didn’t threaten any congressional mandate and to this day, outdoor recreationists, like kayakers, can credit the bay’s pristine qualities to the foresightedness of Hammond’s administration.
One of our better governors, Hammond had a positive outlook when it came to development: To paraphrase, he said he was for development if developers can pay their own way, the people most affected want it and it doesn’t do irreparable harm to fish and wildlife resources. Pebble’s proposal fails on all three counts. For the governor to give Alaskans false and misleading information only serves to feed the beast of ignorance.
Face it, commissioner Corri Feige — Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Pebble horse has expired and so will his single term as one of Alaska’s worst governors.
— Dick Hensel
Anchorage
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