[Eska]

Most Alaskans, including Repubs oppose mineral development if the developers refuse to guarantee to not walkout if something goes south and destroys the local environment; gold mines are notorious for such actions. Kinda like back east when strip miners would forfeit the small bond rather than recover the land destroyed. Here in Alaska, Pebble is in the biggest salmon watershed in Alaska. Too many locals depend on the fish to survive. Alaskan ain't enviro whackos just live in a special place that hasn't been destroyed like in lower 48. The pot thing, I can't figure either. But then I live in a community where we have never had any police. Nearest State Troopers are over 200 miles away and our dirt highway is closed, 10 foot of snow on summits.Can you envision how much freedom exists when you live in a community that doesn't have any prop taxes,laws about this and that, and no police to enforce anything; real freedom

Some environmental choices are too important to play around with over a few hundred jobs for 30 years.

[knak]

Alaskan ain't enviro whackos just live in a special place that hasn't been destroyed like in lower 48.

Well said and makes me homesick!

[LS]

Ok, that makes sense. A key part of capitalism is that businesses must be held accountable when they are negligent or damage private/public property.

[Democrat_media]

You give control of your lands to the EPA in washington DC.

you all really trust government don’t you?

An EPA that says global warming is the biggest threat to the world when actually global warming is a hoax.

[wyowolf]

Dont post your liberal clap trap here on FR!! Everyone here knows that mining is a perfectly safe and environmentally friendly endeavor!! With no impacts whatsoever!!!

[Paul R.]

Well...

My neck of the woods (literally) has seen much mining in the past. One of my family’s favorite camping / fishing spots was once the site of major salt works (plural). Other parks and reserves are former strip mine locations. My Dad was heavily involved in research and projects to reclaim strip mined land. For example:

http://www.illinoismuskies.com/Pyramid.pdf

On fact, one present “problem” is that the State has so much park land in the area that due to low usage (per acre) they can’t afford to maintain it all. There have been rumblings that the largest park might be closed. (One problem is that so few people seem to know it exists — or maybe they are all “absorbed” by social media these days...?)

At any rate, altered is not necessarily “destroyed”, and “destruction” is often temporary. Sometimes what follows is actually better. However, mining must be done with a modicum of sense, and there I would agree with you. In this region, no mining that I know of has been done since the 1960’s without the mining company doing a pretty good job of restoration — obviously because they were required to. In the case of a major fishery, even more care should be taken, as that affects a lot more people than just the fishermen.

[Paul R.]

[Paul R.]