Thanks for the reminder. Please support this project!
Funny how we as a nation want to have critical minerals to be self sustainable, yet we kill every mining project.
Maybe if it was a wind farm (which needs a shit load of copper, BTW) Backcountry Humpers and Anglers would support it?
75% of AK is off limits to development forever. But for some it's not enough, it needs to be 100%. I didn't listen to the propaganda but did it mention that the road corridor was negotiated part of statehood for giving up the Gates? You know a National park the size of West Virginia? They knew about the minerals then and wanted to ensure that they could be mined in the future thus setting aside an access corridor.
We have 5 highways in this State. Every one of them is critical to hunting and fishing access. While the Ambler road will not be open to the public initially, neither was the haul road. How many people use the Haul road for access? How many people use the Parks highway (1M) a year. It's just as long and traverses just as many rivers and streams, but it's ok because you can access Denali NP off it.
Keep it up though, it makes minerals that much more valuable and things that much more expensive.
You, as much as anyone, has pushed me thinking with regard to mineral extraction. I still generally side with an opposing view, but I appreciate your perspective and willingness to engage in these topics.
True that,
@Bambistew - don't take this next part personally. It's a rant, not an attack on anyone. Can they be separated? Sure enough farmers on HT using water from the Columbia River system dams, too. Not poking at them either. These things were put in place before any of us were born. I'm not afraid to de-construct them. The only thing I get from the dams are letters about the rights of downstream users. Oh, and my electricity...
I'm blowing steam here, not writing a political science paper. I'm betting there are some laws and regulations I do not know about or have forgottten.
My personal opinion on Alaskan highways is that you haven't lived until you've caught air off a frost heave or swerved to miss a moose or caribou. Most of us outsiders don't get that the Haul Road ends at a locked gate and a security guard. Doesn't mean I don't want to drive the whole of it someday. I don't think the truckers have any love of civilians on The Dalton.
Pretty sure we have paid off Seward's Folly multiple times over now. Wikipedia says that adjusted for inflation, the Alaska purchase would be $125M in 2022 dollars. Chump change. A tenth of some lottery jackpots. Alaska is still the US' most valuable asset. We can afford to be selective which projects get green lit.
BTW- If I thought I could buy Alaska if I won Mega-Millions, I'd buy way more tickets.
I'm personally haven't researched the history of the Ambler project. My goal with the thread was to inform people on either side of the issue that comment was extended. Most of my resident Alaskan friends are a little perturbed at the outside attention. Especially when they are afraid their Permanent Fund check might get touched.
Proponents always want to talk about job generation from big projects. The truth is that there isn't much, and it won't go to locals. For many years I worked in the disaster recovery data centers in North Central Washington as a vendor. Fortune 100 corporations were (and still are) wooed by county governments with tax incentives and the promise of cheap hydro power. They came and built fail-over data centers in case their main sites went down. (Ironic since the backup sites are still within the blast radius of any Cascade Range volcano blowing its top.) Some of these are owned by the actual corporations, others by corporations whose business model is to build co-location data centers and lease space in them. (They also take the cheap hydro power and re-sell it to their tennents at a profit. ) After the (out of state) construction crews left, I would see 5-20 employees at these 40 acre sites maintaining the lights out rooms. Most of them cleaning staff and security guards.
I get the desire to want outsiders to stay out of issues, be it extraction or predator protection. I personally have come around to wanting the Snake River dams removed. I'm not convinced that the salmon will miraculously recover, but I'm sick of the American Farm Bureau throwing their 800 gorilla into any fight wherever it may be. None of my acreage is enrolled on the government teat, so AFB does nothing for me. They just throw bucket loads of money at every Idaho election to protect the Farm Bill payout for their members. I'm not part of a religion that says the great basin has to bloom, I don't see the need to sell Idaho's power and water (and salmonids) cheap. I also think soil loss will kill us all before a mining containment spill in Alaska.
When I write my representatives about resource issues, I get back the AFB talking points in a boilerplate letter. They had just as well put it on AFB letterhead. The AFB is getting everything they pay for in western Members of Congress. That pisses me off. The OG lobby is right in there too. Most of these politicians here in the west came in on the, "drain the swamp" ticket. Now they are drinking swamp water by the gallon. No doubt the Alaska reps are getting their share as well.
I agree that it is ridiculous to scream for better batteries while you fight every mine proposal.
My issue is that I don't trust that bad actors will be punished when the fines are less than the cost of cleaning up a screw up. The taxpayers get bent over when an extraction (usually by a foreign company) goes bad. The mine owners get the profits and the citizens of the US get a SuperFund site. Whether it's JimBob's logging company or HECLA Mining.
I think there are a lot like me that are labeled bunny huggers, but we really just want meaningful penalties for bad actors and serious protection oversight. We want the winner of a resource auction to assume the risks along with the profits. Even if we made them buy liability insurance against an accident, one would hope the premiums would be based on fiduciary analysis rather than lobbyist input. When I see how much legislation is actually written by lobbyists, I have my doubts.
Like many so-called bunny huggers, I sure AF wouldn't complain if someone found oil or gas under our acreage. Bring on the bulldozers and royalty checks. I'll buy a dozer and do the remediation myself.
I'm a life long conservative but I'm really tired that access to virtually free natural resources is really only for those with a shit pile of capital. Hunting and fishing, sure. But don't have an axe, pick, or shovel in your rig. My local USFS won't even let me cut logs to build a cabin unless I lie and say its going to be bucked into cordwood. Some of this is about the cost of the EIS and NEPA process, and I get that. But I've personally stood on countless clearcuts and barrow pits and asked,"WTF did the EIS for this?" You look at a post logging landslide in SEAK and think there has to be a better way.
Some things I need to learn:
Is there an onshore equivalent to the oil royalties paid to the LWCF? If so, what is the enabling legislation and oversight? Does it include hard minerals or just OG?
Why isn't there an equivalent to the NAM for timber and mineral resources? Are they not a public trust as well? Imagine what the NAM would look like if there were still 20 million bison to slaughter for easy profit.
Are the Alaska Native Corporations exempt from EPA reuglations?
Answered:
Facilities in Indian country must comply with environmental laws and requirements in the same manner and to the same extent as any other regulated facility located outside Indian country.
www.epa.gov
Rant over
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