Final Blow to Pebble Mine?

I disagree. What most politicians have is the ability to perform actions on behalf of those who give them the most campaign dollars. While not impossible, it's extremely rare to encounter a politician who understands biology, ecology, chemistry, or the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. The part of how the world works that they understand is how it responds to money.

Unlike gold, silver, or copper, salmon is the currency you can eat. The world may need copper, but it needs salmon more. Copper can be found many places. Bristol Bay exists in only one place on planet earth. A politician in unlikely ever to be able to understand what that means, but for enough money they can be persuaded to act on behalf of salmon.
Ill agree on the Bristol location, unfortunately not all locations are viable and we cannot move them.

The politician argument was sort of mining joke to its age and politicians, but even better your disagreement just drives the reason to follow protocol. The exact reason such is put in place is to educate before decisions are made.
 
I recently finished The Snail Darter and the Dam. It's written by Zigmunt Plater, the lawyer who argued TVA v. Hill (he's also a fine fly tier and angler). TVA v. Hill is one of the first and still one of the most important cases interpreting the Endangered Species Act.

The book is a great window into what @Divad calls "the protocol." There's what the law says, and there's what happens. Money and entrenched interests can bring intense pressure to bear on what should be scientific decisions by neutral government agencies.


 
'They' don't even need to 'think in decades'; greed is a dependable road map for destruction however delayed. Humans are inherently selfish and shortsighted.

We think we might have accomplished something. They know we didn't.
 
I am opposed to the pebble mine specifically but we cannot oppose all new mines everywhere. Unless that is we can convince our wives that costume jewelry is just as good, convince ourselves that we do not need newer and better electronics, and so on....
 
I am opposed to the pebble mine specifically but we cannot oppose all new mines everywhere. Unless that is we can convince our wives that costume jewelry is just as good, convince ourselves that we do not need newer and better electronics, and so on....

Not disagreeing, but it might be better if we revised the General Mining Act of 1872 to make it harder for foreign firms to mine our more sensitive areas, like the Grand Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante, Bristol Bay...
 
Not disagreeing, but it might be better if we revised the General Mining Act of 1872 to make it harder for foreign firms to mine our more sensitive areas, like the Grand Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante, Bristol Bay...
Not only that but it should be illegal to
1. Have foreign control or influence over America's natural resources.
2. Export America's raw natural resources.

The problem we have now is that everyplace is sensitive and important to someone. Not everyone gets what they want.
 
Not only that but it should be illegal to
1. Have foreign control or influence over America's natural resources.
2. Export America's raw natural resources.

The problem we have now is that everyplace is sensitive and important to someone. Not everyone gets what they want.
Saudi Arabia buying land in drought stricken Arizona to grow hay to ship back home to feed cattle they are not allowed to grow hay for in their own country because of water restrictions.
Chinese buying land in Texas, with the least reliable electrical grid in the country, and building crypto mining centers that draw enough power 24/7 to supply half a million homes.
The root of the problem is simple...greed over patriotism.
 
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"Fondomonte’s leases entitle the company to reimbursement from taxpayers for certain upgrades — a sum that stands at about $7.4 million in the Butler Valley, company representatives say."


Here in Pueblo West Colorado we frequently have voluntary water rationing and we have 35,000 homes. Pueblo west metro district has water "rights" to supply 65000 homes. How can you have rights to water that does not exist???
 
How can you have rights to water that does not exist???
Happens often. Used to be, someone applies to the designated state agency for a water right of a certain amount from a certain area. The state agency then issues the requested water right under the bureaucratic assumption that either water exists in infinite supply or that to deny the water right request might violate the applicants rights, make them angry, or otherwise make for a bad day at the office. A number of streams in WA were over appropriated before DOE ever began inventorying basin water supplies. Western water law is the greatest gift ever to the lawyers' life and retirement benevolent fund.
 
They’ll figure out another way to “pick that scab to make it bleed again”, soon enough. 😉
 
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