Pebble and BP, Part II

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for another summer in Bristol Bay, working the fishing season and furthering my reporting on the salmon fishery there and the proposed Pebble Mine. Before I pack up and head off, though, I thought I would follow up on my earlier post about how the BP disaster is impacting the Pebble debate, as it's a theme that we'll be hearing a lot more about, I think.

A writer at JCK, one of the jewelry industry's leading trade publications, had this to say on their website:

Watching the scary and unsettling coverage of the BP oil spill on the news today, I can’t help but think that the proposed Pebble gold and copper mine project in Alaska is not going to happen.

One of the things that we learned from the BP episode is that, while a company may sincerely believe it can handle a catastrophe, you never know until it happens.

This is what I've heard from a number of people in Alaska I've spoken with, as well: that the real resonance of the BP disaster is in making people question the guarantees of safety and technologically advanced practices that large corporations routinely make. As the writer notes, "People will be far more skeptical when mining companies say 'trust me.'"

Of course, some in Alaska see things a bit differently. In a piece in the Anchorage Daily News by economist Tim Bradner rises to the defense of the oil industry as vital to Alaska's economy and points to other bright spots that the state can look to:

Development of a new pit that will extend the life of the Red Dog Mine north of Kotzebue, one of the world's largest lead-zinc mines, is set to begin. Also, the Usibelli mine at Healy is producing and exporting record amounts of coal this year. Add to this continuing work at the big Donlin Creek gold and Pebble copper-gold prospects, which could become large mines.

It looks like it will be a good commercial fishing year. Salmon prices are up.[Emphasis added]

And with that juxtaposition of mining and fishing--whether intentional or not, it's interesting--I'm off. Probably won't be updating this site much (not that I do normally) until August. TS