A Payday for Washington, A Scam for Alaskans
In a new report, Cook Inletkeeper details the increasing scale of lobby expenditures by the Pebble Partnership to influence the timeline and approval of their inadequate scoping and rushed permit applications. Just two days ago The Pebble Partnership hired the man Politico called the “most powerful lobbyist in Trump’s Washington”, fitting evidence in the unfolding story of Pebble’s lies and lobbyists.
“Pebble is spending more money on lobbyists than most development projects in North America,” said Bob Shavelson, Advocacy Director at Cook Inletkeeper. ” Combined with their blatant lies about project scoping and their failed relationships with big shot investors over the last decade, not to mention overwhelming public opposition in Alaska, Pebble reveals that their latest trick is just bankrolling their way through the swamp.”
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, Pebble has paid $4.43 million to in-house and external lobbyists. Since 2007, that number balloons to more than $11 million. This spending represents an enormous percentage of the company’s overall resources.
Bristol Bay tribes and residents, commercial and sport fishermen, and everyday Alaskans don’t have the same lobbying resources and insider access as corporations like Pebble and Northern Dynasty. Pebble’s aggressive lobbying and lobbyist spending is designed to ensure the people who will be left with the consequences of the Pebble Mine are ultimately left out of the process.
At public hearings last month, held by the Army Corps of Engineers throughout the Bristol Bay region and in Anchorage, community organizers reported 75% of Public Testimony was opposed to the Pebble Mine and critical of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
In the end, the Pebble Mine has been a payday for Washington DC lobbyists and a scam for Alaskans.
