Thu., September 9, 2021
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it would seek to restart a process that could restrict mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, which is renowned for its salmon runs.
The announcement is the latest in a long-running dispute over a proposed copper-and-gold mine in the southwest Alaska region.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in November 2020, under the Trump administration, denied key authorization for the proposed Pebble Mine following an environmental review from the agency months earlier that the developer had viewed as a favorable to the project.
In the rejection decision, a corps official concluded the project would “result in significant degradation of the aquatic ecosystem” and that it was “contrary to the public interest.”
The Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine developer owned by Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., is appealing that determination.
“As the Biden Administration seeks lower carbon emissions for energy production, they should recognize that such change will require significantly more mineral production – notably copper,” Mike Heatwole, a Pebble partnership spokesperson, said in an email. “The Pebble Project remains an important domestic source for the minerals necessary for the administration to reach its green energy goals.”
Restrictions on mining in the region were proposed but never finalized under the Obama administration.
In 2019, during the Trump administration, Matthew Leopold, who was EPA general counsel, directed then-regional administrator Chris Hladick to decide whether to move forward with the proposed restrictions or withdraw them.
Hladick withdrew them and the agency at the time said it was removing what it called an “outdated, preemptive proposed veto of the Pebble Mine” and allowing the project to be vetted through the permitting process.
Earlier this year, a divided appeals court panel, in a case challenging the 2019 action, concluded a regional administrator was allowed to take the actions Hladick did “only if the discharge of materials would be unlikely to have an unacceptable adverse effect.”
The matter was sent back to a lower court to determine if the EPA’s action “was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or contrary to law.”
U.S. government attorneys, in a court filing Thursday, said the EPA “acknowledges that it did not address the standard that the Ninth Circuit subsequently determined must be met for withdrawal of a proposed determination.”
The EPA, in a statement, said it is asking the judge to vacate the 2019 action. If granted, it said that would “automatically reinitiate" the review process, through which mine-related activities could be restricted or prohibited.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan called the Bristol Bay watershed “an Alaskan treasure that underscores the critical value of clean water in America. Today’s announcement reinforces once again EPA’s commitment to making science-based decisions to protect our natural environment.”
He added: "What’s at stake is preventing pollution that would disproportionately impact Alaska Natives, and protecting a sustainable future for the most productive salmon fishery in North America.”
The EPA has said Bristol Bay supports the world's largest sockeye salmon runs and that the watershed contains significant mineral resources.
Nelli Williams, Alaska director for Trout Unlimited, one of the groups that sued over the 2019 action, said proposed restrictions would provide “an important layer of protection that makes it much more difficult for the Pebble Partnership, or any other companies in the future, to mine the Pebble ore deposit.”
Northern Dynasty President and CEO Ron Thiessen, in a statement Thursday, said the Pebble project "can be designed, built and operated with industry-leading environmental safeguards while generating significant financial returns over multiple decades.”
The company touted a preliminary economic review it said also looked at potential expansion possibilities and alternative ways to recover gold.
But the statement said neither Northern Dynasty nor the Pebble partnership “has proposed or intends to propose any of these development alternatives in the near-term for regulatory approval.”
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Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press
US to reevaluate review of Alaska petroleum reserve
Wed., September 8, 2021
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is expected to reevaluate a Trump-era environmental review that provided a basis for plans to open an additional roughly 6.8 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing.
A memo outlining the planned review accompanied government filings in lawsuits brought by conservation and environmental advocacy groups. Those lawsuits challenged the adequacy of the environmental analysis underpinning the plans that were finalized in the final weeks of the Trump administration.
U.S. Justice Department attorneys on Tuesday requested stays in the cases pending the new evaluation.
The memo, dated Friday, was from Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management for the Interior Department. She said she was directing the land management agency to evaluate the environmental review and related analyses.
She wrote that the department had not yet decided whether to "withdraw or replace” the 2020 plan. But she said the department's initial assessment was that it was “inconsistent" with policy set out in a January executive order from President Joe Biden.
Biden's order lists as administration policy such things as protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Daniel-Davis' memo does not go into great detail on areas the department deemed problematic but describes the 2020 plan as containing provisions that “reduce environmental protections in favor of further promoting oil and gas development."
Daniel-Davis said the Bureau of Land Management was not to offer for lease tracts in the areas that would be newly opened under the Trump-era plan while the evaluation was under way.
She said the agency would provide the status of its review and “related actions” within 120 days from the date of the memo.
The Interior Department “is committed to protecting public health, conserving land, water, and wildlife, and ensuring that management of our public lands and oceans is guided by science, equity, and community engagement," spokesperson Tyler Cherry said in a written statement.
The announced review is in line with Biden's directive “to review and address agency regulations and programs that conflict with this Administration’s climate priorities,” the statement says.
The plan, which the Bureau of Land Management said was signed by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Dec. 31, made about 18.6 million of the reserve's roughly 23 million acres available for oil and gas leasing. The land agency, in announcing the decision, said it contained “important safeguards for wildlife and sensitive resources, while allowing for responsible oil and gas leasing.”
Suzanne Bostrom, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska who is representing some of the groups in the litigation, said Wednesday that she saw as encouraging the department's intent to review the plans.
Conservationists, among other things, have cited concerns with possible impacts from development on the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, which they've described as a productive wetlands complex and caribou calving area.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy's office was expected to release a statement.
Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press
Wed., September 8, 2021
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is expected to reevaluate a Trump-era environmental review that provided a basis for plans to open an additional roughly 6.8 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to oil and gas leasing.
A memo outlining the planned review accompanied government filings in lawsuits brought by conservation and environmental advocacy groups. Those lawsuits challenged the adequacy of the environmental analysis underpinning the plans that were finalized in the final weeks of the Trump administration.
U.S. Justice Department attorneys on Tuesday requested stays in the cases pending the new evaluation.
The memo, dated Friday, was from Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management for the Interior Department. She said she was directing the land management agency to evaluate the environmental review and related analyses.
She wrote that the department had not yet decided whether to "withdraw or replace” the 2020 plan. But she said the department's initial assessment was that it was “inconsistent" with policy set out in a January executive order from President Joe Biden.
Biden's order lists as administration policy such things as protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Daniel-Davis' memo does not go into great detail on areas the department deemed problematic but describes the 2020 plan as containing provisions that “reduce environmental protections in favor of further promoting oil and gas development."
Daniel-Davis said the Bureau of Land Management was not to offer for lease tracts in the areas that would be newly opened under the Trump-era plan while the evaluation was under way.
She said the agency would provide the status of its review and “related actions” within 120 days from the date of the memo.
The Interior Department “is committed to protecting public health, conserving land, water, and wildlife, and ensuring that management of our public lands and oceans is guided by science, equity, and community engagement," spokesperson Tyler Cherry said in a written statement.
The announced review is in line with Biden's directive “to review and address agency regulations and programs that conflict with this Administration’s climate priorities,” the statement says.
The plan, which the Bureau of Land Management said was signed by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Dec. 31, made about 18.6 million of the reserve's roughly 23 million acres available for oil and gas leasing. The land agency, in announcing the decision, said it contained “important safeguards for wildlife and sensitive resources, while allowing for responsible oil and gas leasing.”
Suzanne Bostrom, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska who is representing some of the groups in the litigation, said Wednesday that she saw as encouraging the department's intent to review the plans.
Conservationists, among other things, have cited concerns with possible impacts from development on the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, which they've described as a productive wetlands complex and caribou calving area.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy's office was expected to release a statement.
Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press
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