Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy wants Republicans who’ve come out in opposition to a large proposed gold and copper mine in his state, such as Donald Trump Jr., to butt out.
“There is no doubt that this project has been politicized,” Dunleavy told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
But the regulatory process, driven by science and data, should determine whether the proposed Pebble Mine project, or any project for that matter, harms the environment, he said, not politics.
Dunleavy said he has been surprised by the vigorous opposition from prominent conservatives such as Trump Jr. to the project, which would be the largest gold and copper mine in North America.
“We’re Republicans, and we’re pro-development. Responsibly, we’re pro-development,” the governor said. “We want to develop here in this country because if we do it here in this country, the opportunities are here in this country, and the opportunity to protect the environment is better here than it is pushing it overseas.”
Dunleavy said he’s previously spoken with President Trump about all of Alaska’s projects, including Pebble Mine, though he hasn’t touched base with the president since the project began to face political backlash.
The Alaska governor said he and Trump share common goals to create domestic jobs and to ensure the United States isn’t reliant on other countries for minerals.
Dunleavy called Trump Jr. a “great guy” but suggested the president and his son have “slightly different ideas on development.”
Pebble Mine opponents appear to have the upper hand for now. In an Aug. 24 letter, the Army Corps of Engineers asked Pebble’s developers to take significant additional measures before it can be permitted to compensate for harms the mine will have on wetlands and streams. The mine’s critics called the requirements near-impossible.
Just a month prior, the project looked like it was heading toward quick approval after an Army Corps final environmental analysis found the mine would pose no serious risks. Soon after that, however, prominent conservative pushback to the project mobilized. Nick Ayers, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, and Trump Jr. launched a political campaign against the mine that included a segment on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show.
Trump Jr., who has fished in Alaska’s Bristol Bay waters where the mine would be located, has called the region “sacred.”
“This is a migratory species that comes back to one place to breed,” he told the Daily Caller in a recent interview. “You destroy that, you have one little slip-up, you destroy a species.”
Environmentalists, too, have said Pebble Mine would massively harm the Bristol Bay waters, home to one of the world’s most productive salmon ecosystems, and threaten the commercial fishing economy there.
The mine and its associated transportation corridor would damage more than 3,800 acres of wetlands and more than 180 miles of streams, according to the Army Corps.
Dunleavy, however, said opponents of the mine aren’t seeing the full picture.
Even if Pebble Mine doesn’t move forward, the demand for copper won’t subside, he said. Dunleavy added that copper, as well as other minerals and rare earth elements that Alaska has plentiful reserves of, are critical building blocks for renewable energy technologies.
“We’re going to put ourselves at a disadvantage” if the U.S. relies on other countries for those minerals, instead of mining them in Alaska and other places domestically, Dunleavy said.
It isn’t clear where the Pebble project stands. Top Army Corps officials have privately told conservative groups supportive of the mine that the project isn’t dead and could still be permitted if it satisfies the agency’s requirements.
Tom Collier, CEO of Pebble Limited Partnership, the mine’s owner and a subsidiary of Canadian-based Northern Dynasty Mineral, recently told the Washington Examiner that the company expects to send a plan to the Army Corps within two to three weeks. He said he is “absolutely 100% confident” the project can meet all the requirements.
The Trump administration may be the project’s last chance to get approval. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said he would halt the Pebble Mine project. It’s likely a Biden administration would use the Environmental Protection Agency to veto the project altogether, as the Obama administration was poised to do before it left office.
Dunleavy said his office plans to talk to Army Corps officials soon to get an idea of next steps for the project and what’s left for its developers to do to get through the permitting process.
“My goal as the governor is not to just ram a project through willy-nilly without safeguards,” the governor said.
He added that he gets calls from other companies interested in mining opportunities in Alaska that want to know what the Pebble Mine hurdles mean for other potential projects and what the “rules of the game” are going to be.
Dunleavy acknowledged that “things are getting warmer” in Alaska, but he said he doesn’t think that means Alaska should stop developing its resources.
“If it’s done here in this country, we can control things better here in this country with better science and better data,” he said. “And that’s all I’m asking — that these projects be looked at, through the lens of science and data — and I think they will have an ancillary impact on the environment in a positive way.”
