Category: Mining
The EPA vs States Rights: Robin Hayes Supports EPA Expansion Of Power
| May 7, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Mining |
We have to ask ourselves what someone’s motivation might be whenever that person does something that defies reason and is contrary to their normal mode of operation. Such is the case of Robin Hayes, the North Carolina Republican Party Chairman, as he has recently written an open letter supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) massive expansion.
Specifically, Mr. Hayes has written his open letter in support of the EPA’s ongoing efforts to block the development of the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. That project would provide much needed resources that would help alleviate the economic depression in the area, would provide jobs to the Native American and other people in the area and would provide energy resources for the country.
What is Robin Hayes thinking?
Why would a North Carolina Republican come out in support of preemptive measures to stop mining on State land a continent away in Alaska? Why would he support the unprecedented expansion of the powers of the EPA?
Surely a representative of the people wouldn’t put his own financial interests over the interests of the people he is supposed to represent? That would be downright hypocritical and counter to the trust of the people he is supposed to be representing!
So what is Hayes up to? It might have something to do with his favorite Bristol Bay fishing hole.
The Hill tacked a short profile of Hayes to his letter, saying, “He is a frequent visitor to Alaska’s Bristol Bay, where he stays at Brian Kraft’s Alaska Sportsman’s Lodges.”
The reference is to two luxury lodges, where the tab for one week is $8,675, or more than the per capita annual income in nearby Nondalton ($8,411), where 37 percent of families are below the poverty line. The lodge prices don’t faze Hayes, who owns a hosiery mill in North Carolina. His grandfather was textile magnate Charles Cannon of Cannon towels and sheets fame.
Kraft has been fighting to preserve his lodges’ privacy by stopping the Pebble Mine, whose site is about 65 miles from his nearest lodge. Kraft founded and funded the Bristol Bay Alliance in 2004 for this purpose. He also became a project director for Trout Unlimited’s Alaska chapter in 2005. And David E. Sandlin, half-owner of the lodges with Kraft, is an old schoolmate of Hayes at North Carolina’s Duke University — they were two years apart.
It seems that it is often the case that the ‘green’ movement is motivated more by the personal interests of the well-to-do than by any real concern for the environment. It certainly doesn’t seem to be motivated by what is best for the country and the people.
Help stop this insanity. Take action! Send a letter to your Representative here.
More at: Big Dogs House, Lonely Conservative
Alaska Attorney General agrees EPA unlawfully expanding its powers
| May 3, 2012 | Posted by Admin under Issues, Mining |
Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty
Count Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty in the chorus of voices decrying the bullying tactics of the EPA in its efforts to shut down an important resource project before it’s even had the chance to apply for permits.
Geraghty wrote in a March letter to Dennis McLerran, Regional Administrator of EPA Region X, “We believe that EPA’s actions in using the Watershed assessment to address the pending petition are unlawfully preemptive, premature, arbitrary, capricious and vague.”
Legal Newsline reports:
EPA’s watershed assessment effort reaches well beyond any process or authority contemplated by the [Clean Water Act]…
…it conflicts with federal and state law, lacks scientific credibility and violates state and private mineral rights…
Various federal judges – including Supreme Court Justices – have described the EPA’s conduct as “outrageous” or “exceeding its authority.”
The Pebble Mine project continues to be under threat from this unconstitutional expansion of power by the EPA. You can take action via Resourceful Earth by sending a letter to your Representative and Senators telling them to stop the EPA and their bullying tactics here.
For further reading:
Alaska AG says EPA’s actions ‘unlawful’ (Legal Newsline)
Obama’s “None Of The Above” Energy Policy (Wizbang Blog)
Big Green pushes for EPA power grab to stop Pebble Mine (Washington Examiner)
Resourceful Earth asks Congress to stop the bullying tactics of the EPA
| May 1, 2012 | Posted by Admin under Issues, Mining |
In the past, we have covered stories about government attempts to shut down resource projects without a fair chance for review, including President Obama and the Keystone XL pipeline and Sen. Maria Cantwell’s [D-WA] efforts against the Pebble project in Alaska. Now, it turns out that despite being “roundly smacked down by the Supreme Court for their fine first, investigate later use of the Clean Water Act,” the EPA is moving forward with plans to try to shut down the Pebble Mine project—before it has even applied for permits or been formally proposed!
In other words, an unelected department full of government bureaucrats is trying to shut down an important resource project before it’s even had the chance to apply for permits. No matter that the mine would provide thousands of area jobs or that the partnership running the potential mine “has invested [millions] to make Pebble… the most environmentally friendly mine in history.”
As is described in this article from the Washington Examiner:
“This unprecedented power grab from the EPA would eliminate local and state authorities from having any say in the permitting process and gut the process established under the National Environmental Policy Act—passed by the environmentalists themselves.”
Apparently the EPA hasn’t gotten the memo from the White House that we’re supposed to be ending bullying, not participating in it.
According to a recent post from the WizBang blog:
“The Pebble project, like Keystone before it, is just one large example of the trend under this president. While publically saying that they are pursuing an ‘all of the above’ energy and resource strategy, down in the trenches (out of public view for the most part) what is really happening is that administratively and bureaucratically they are ensuring that “none of the above” ever see the light of day.”
You can take action via Resourceful Earth by sending a letter to your Representative and Senators telling them to stop the EPA and their bullying tactics here.
For further reading:
Big Green pushes for EPA power grab to stop Pebble Mine (Washington Examiner)
Obama’s “None Of The Above” Energy Policy (Wizbang Blog)
Washington Senator Maria Cantwell Interferes With Alaskan Environmental Affairs (Resourceful Earth News)
More Jobs Lost as Interior Department Stops Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon
| January 12, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Mining |
Last week the Interior Department finalized plans to not allow mining for uranium near the Grand Canyon. I think this just makes us more dependent on these resources from other, less regulated counties, and loses American jobs.
The department, which in 2009 imposed an interim ban that is soon due to expire, now plans a 20-year moratorium on new mines. Western environmental groups have long sought such a measure.
In proposing an extended moratorium last year, the interior secretary, Ken Salazar, cited the potential for pollution in waterways and harm to wildlife, desert vegetation and air quality.
There is perennial dispute over whether uranium contamination detected in the area is natural or caused by humans.
Environmentalist Promote Bogus Poll to Support Their Bogus Positions
| December 13, 2011 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Mining |
A survey paid for by NRDC conducted by a known liberal polling firm has little credibility, especially when it was conducted in August and released in December. NRDC has been a leading opposition been using the potential of an extraction project at Pebble as a means to raise money through a misleading alarmist direct mail campaign. This survey is just more biased fundraising material; the survey questions were as biased as the direct mail fundraising letters. How can they expect a survey with loaded questions to be taken seriously?
The environmental movement is built on a series of lies. Lies about the science on which they base their belief system. They lie about economics and any businesses or groups that do not fit into their belief system. They also lie about public opinion. In short, we can trust nothing that is put out by the environmental industry.
In light of all that, it comes as no big surprise that the environmentalists are touting a ‘new’ poll that they claim proves public opinion is firmly against the building of the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska. That project would provide jobs and a boost to the economy in an economically distressed area of the nation. In addition, it would go a long way toward relieving the U.S. economy and dependence on foreign sources for copper. But those things don’t seem to matter to the environmentalists.
This ‘new’ poll has the environmentalists patting each other on the back and telling us all that the majority of people in Alaska and the Lower 48 agree with them and their wealthy benefactors that the Pebble Mine Project should not be built.
That would be great news for the environmental industry – if it were true. But its not. Fact is, the poll they are citing is bogus and the conclusions they are drawing from the polling is equally suspect.
Let’s take a closer look at the poll the environmentalists are so proud of to see if Americans REALLY do want to shut down efforts to harvest these precious resources that our country needs.
The poll was paid for by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an acknowledged liberal polling firm with little credibility. In addition, NRDC has been a leading opponent of the Pebble Mine Project. NRDC has also used the potential of an extraction project at Pebble as a means to raise money through a misleading alarmist direct mail campaign. With that kind of vested interest in killing the Pebble Mine Project can we expect this is an unbiased report?
Also involved in the poll were Nunamta Aulukestai which translates as ‘Caretakers of Our Lands’ and Renewable Resources Coalition, both environmentalist activist groups who can not be expected to conducted objective, unbiased polling.
The survey was conducted by Belden Russonello Strategists, LLC., a group who has historically done these types of surveys for environmentalists and liberal politicians. Again, unbiased? Hardly.
The press release for the survey sets up the questions with this statement (among others) ‘and the level of opposition actually increases as people learn more about the mine.’ This seems to provide respondents with the ‘right’ point of view with which to regard the questions.
The survey questions themselves push the environmentalists agenda. For instance asking respondents if they think Alaskan salmon should be protected or would respondents like to see Alaska stay a wonderful wilderness or have it torn to shreds because greedy profiteers want to rape it of its natural resources. They were a tad more subtle, but the general method was the same.
And what about this ‘majority of Americans’ who voted in the poll. They polled 801 people across the Lower 48. That comes out to about 17 people per state. Hardly a ‘majority of the American people.’ Even with these minute numbers, their polling wasn’t a landslide in their agenda’s favor.
The poll was conducted in August, but the results of the poll have just now been released. Hardly ‘new’ news! Why the delay? Are they unsure of the results of the poll data themselves?
We understand that the conclusions of this ‘poll’ are suspect at best, even while the environmentalists are lauding this survey as proof positive that the American people are speaking with one voice that they want to put a STOP to the harvesting of essential resources in Alaska. We might be generous in calling their conclusions exacerbations and exaggerations. But that would be extremely generous indeed. It gets more and more obvious every day that they will tell the public anything to get their own agenda passed without thought or concern for the consequences. Sounds like desperation, doesn’t it.
Well, maybe they think of the consequences, but not in the way most of us do. The executive director of Nunamta Aulukestai said in praise of this questionable poll that its a ‘no brainer’ that the salmon are more precious than gold and copper. She called that common sense. Common sense tells me that she’s using copper to post her comments online, to read the bogus report, whenever she talks on her phone or heats her house. Common sense tells me that we need copper and will get it one way or the other and better to get in under the strict regulations of an environmentally sensitive country like the United States.
The environmentalists are gleefully celebrating the ‘big news’ of this ‘diverse, comprehensive survey’ that is anything BUT diverse and comprehensive. This bogus poll is nothing more than another environmentalists lie. In fact, it is not worth the recycled paper its written on.
