inletkeeper

Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.

Cook Inletkeeper

Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 is a False Solution to High Gas Prices and Sacrifices Cook Inlet Communities

By | September 22, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 22, 2022 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Sue Mauger, 907.399.2070, sue@inletkeeper.org Taylor Kendal Smith, 907.802.0534, taylor@inletkeeper.org Ben Boettger, 603.306.1352, ben@inletkeeper.org HOMER, Alaska — Today, the Department of the Interior released the Proposed Notice of Sale for Lease Sale 258 in Cook Inlet, Alaska. This is in direct response to the passing of the […]

Western Conservationism Isn’t Working

By | July 14, 2022

Western conservationism isn’t working. As we face the fact that our environmental laws are ill-equipped to address the all-encompassing nature of the climate crisis, we must learn from the holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from a millennia of experience.

Living as Conservation Medicine Experts in Alaska

By | June 1, 2022

By Kayla Walsh, Alaska Conservation Foundation Intern What brings a city girl like me to Cook Inlet, a place I hadn’t heard of just 6 months ago? Well, I started a graduate program in Conservation Medicine and I’m here to learn all about it from the real experts: Alaskans! I’ve been asked what Conservation Medicine […]

Why We Can’t Forget the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

By | March 24, 2022

On this date 33 years ago, Alaskans experienced the oiling of Prince William Sound and beyond. You know the story – Bligh Reef, drunk captain, North Slope crude oil. A disastrous trifecta that fouled our waters and shoreline resulting in the most significant environmental and coastal community catastrophe in Alaska’s history.   Alaskans learned important lessons […]

Reflecting on 26 Years of Protecting Cook Inlet

By | December 14, 2021

I remember ice floes in fast-moving water and hoarfrost on cars. I remember a steaming volcano in the distance. I remember 100 bald eagles in the trees. In late 1995, I drove down the Kenai Peninsula to accept the job running Cook Inletkeeper. It felt like another world. The year before, a dedicated group of […]

ALASKANS CALL FOR STOP TO TOXIC OIL DUMPING IN COOK INLET

By | November 8, 2021

STATE MAKES MOCKERY OF “RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT” BY LETTING OIL INDUSTRY INCREASE TOXIC POLLUTION IN PRIME BELUGA & FISH HABITAT Download the Press Release here HOMER, AK – Today a coalition of groups, filed by Trustees for Alaska, pressed the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to reconsider a final Clean Water Act permit that allows […]

How the Biggest Labor Uprising in U.S. History Shaped Alaska

By | September 8, 2021

Most people don’t know about the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia in 1921, or how, more recently, it helped shape resource development in Alaska. But this forgotten history is vital, because as the poet Maya Angelou famously put it: “You can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you have been.” […]

Court Orders EPA to Update Science for Toxic Oil Dispersants on Offshore Spills

By | August 11, 2021

Decades-Old Regulations Currently Allow Use of Toxic Chemicals after Oil Spills  A federal district court judge ruled on August 9 in favor of Inletkeeper and a coalition of individuals and environmental groups and ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update its decades-old regulations on the use of toxic chemical dispersants in oil spill […]

Inletkeeper Joins Suit to Stop Dunleavy from Fouling Cook Inlet

By | April 27, 2021

When President Biden took office, he promptly delivered on his campaign promise to address climate change by pausing new oil and gas leasing in federal waters until his Administration could review the leasing program. The pause put the brakes on proposed federal Lease Sale 258, which had been rushed through in a matter of months […]

New Report Shows Mining Not Alaska’s Next Golden Goose

By | April 6, 2021

As Alaska girds for a future without the wave of petrodollars that fueled our early years, it’s time we decide how best to protect and develop the incredible natural resources that make the Great Land unique. A new report makes clear that hard rock mining will not fill the fiscal gap left by flagging oil […]

Dunleavy Launches Yet Another Assault on Wild Alaskan Salmon

By | March 2, 2021

On January 15, the Dunleavy Administration welcomed-in 2021 with new proposed rules to strip Alaskans of our rights to keep water in our streams and lakes to protect our fish (see original post, below). Now, in response to strong public pushback, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has extended the public comment period until […]

Inletkeeper Applauds Halt to Cook Inlet Oil & Gas Lease Sale Process

By | February 4, 2021

Cook Inletkeeper today applauded the decision by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to cancel public hearings around the proposed million-acre Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet.  BOEM’s move comes in the wake of President Biden’s January 27 Executive Order placing a pause on all oil and gas leasing […]

Take Action to Protect Lower Cook Inlet from Oil & Gas Pollution

By | January 27, 2021

In early January, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) spit out an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 1 million acre + Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258. BOEM spent a mere 3 months on the EIS; never before had the federal government rushed through an environmental review so quickly, and BOEM’s haste […]

Trump Throws Lifeline to Big Oil With Last-Second Inlet Lease Sale

By | January 13, 2021

In the last brutal days of the Trump Administration, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) threw a desperate lifeline to the oil and gas industry. On January 13, BOEM released a rushed and haphazard draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to pave the way for a million-acre oil and gas lease sale in the […]

Imagining the Future We Want into Being

By | January 1, 2021

What is the common thread between Concord, NH; Denton, TX; Norman, OK and a growing number of American cities? They all have a commitment to 100% clean energy within the next 30 years. The transition from fossil fuels to renewables is inevitable. What’s not inevitable is that this transition is just and, in the words […]

Taking Back Facts & Science: We Have to Understand the Problem Before We can Address It

By | December 23, 2020

The manufactured upheaval around this year’s Presidential election begs a vital question: how do we address our society’s most pressing issues when facts and science have been thrown under the bus? By all accounts, our communications ecosystem today is toxic. Shadowy “news” sites sprout like mushrooms, amplified by profit-driven, social media algorithms and funded with […]

Does Cook Inlet Need More Oil & Gas Leasing and Dumping?

By | December 18, 2020

Early last September, as fishermen left the Homer Harbor for nearby cod and halibut fishing grounds, the 273’ seismic vessel Polarcus Alima darkened the horizon in Kachemak Bay. The massive vessel – under contract to Hilcorp – proceeded to blast seismic airguns for weeks on end in a quest to explore for more oil and […]

Dunleavy Chooses Oil Over Salmon in Cook Inlet

By | December 10, 2020

This past week, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council sent shockwaves across Alaska when it abruptly closed commercial salmon fishing in the federal waters of Lower Cook Inlet. The closure resulted from the State of Alaska’s blanket refusal to work with the federal government to co-manage the salmon fishery in Lower Cook Inlet. The irony […]

Is the Pebble Mine Dead?

By | November 25, 2020

On the day before Thanksgiving, Alaskans woke to astounding news: the Army Corps rejected a major permit for the Pebble mine. Never before had the Army Corps rejected a major permit for a large oil, gas or mining project in Alaska. Never. And it only came about after years and years of relentless pressure from […]

PEBBLE MINE IS A GIANT BLACK EYE FOR ALASKA

By | November 18, 2020

When I was young and my mom thought I was running with the wrong crowd, she had a simple admonition: if you lay down in the gutter, you get up dirty. That was long ago. But today, when I look at our industry “partners” in Alaska, it feels like we’re wallowing in the gutter. While […]

New Pebble Tapes: Alaskans Will Pay for Pebble Mine Development

By | October 29, 2020

Today another public relations bombshell tore into the Pebble Partnership, with the release of new tapes by the Environmental Investigation Agency showing Northern Dynasty’s Ron Thiessen bragging about the company’s political influence over Alaska Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski. Thiessen also boasts how Alaskans will pay at least $1.5 billion for the roads, ports […]

The Federal Government Wants to Industrialize Lower Cook Inlet

By | October 8, 2020

Forty-five years ago a group of Alaskans with a passion for Cook Inlet took on the oil and gas industry. And in a remarkable David and Goliath battle, they prevailed. Thanks to this small but dogged group of fishermen, scientists, artists and activists, the epic view across Kachemak Bay – and the remarkable resources of […]

Why Recycling Electronics Helps Fight Pebble

By | October 1, 2020

For the past 15 years, Cook Inletkeeper and its partners have hosted electronics recycling (e-cycling) events around the Kenai Peninsula. As this year’s events fast approach, it’s important to understand the many advantages of recycling electronic waste.  One of the most important benefits to e-recycling is helping to protect the fisheries and communities in the […]

Johnson Tract Mine Prompts Big Questions

By | September 3, 2020

Another hardrock mine has reared its head in Cook Inlet, and it’s raising big questions from local property owners, fishermen and businesses. In late August, Inletkeeper flew to the west side of Cook Inlet to meet with local residents and representatives of High Gold – the junior Canadian mining interest currently exploring the Johnson Tract. […]

Biden’s Climate Plan A Good Start for Alaska

By | July 26, 2020

Alaska’s land, water and communities are facing a climate crisis, and we all know the problem. Surface air temperatures in the Arctic are rising at twice the rate of average global warming. A hotter, more arid atmosphere is melting the state’s iconic glaciers at a troubling pace, aggravating destructive forest fires. Climate change-induced ocean acidification […]

Pebble Mine is Buying Permits Under the Trump Administration

By | July 22, 2020

Massive spending on lobbyists gives foreign mining interests unfair advantage over everyday Alaskans A new compilation by Cook Inletkeeper from U.S. Senate Lobbying Reports shows the Canadian mining interests behind the proposed Pebble mine have spent more than $15 million since 2007 on high-priced lobbyists to buy their way to federal permits.   And since 2017 […]

Mike Dunleavy Doesn’t Know Alaskan Values

By | July 16, 2020

Mike Dunleavy recently flew all the way to the east coast to stand by Donald Trump as he gutted rules under the nation’s “environmental magna carta” – the National Environmental Policy Act. Of course Mike Dunleavy has contorted himself in any number of ways to coddle a President who’s handling of the COVID pandemic has […]

Increasing Pollution May Push Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Towards Extinction

By | July 9, 2020

There is an enduring struggle in Cook Inlet to maintain a balance between developing oil and natural gas resources while also protecting the watershed’s rich biodiversity and thriving tourism and fishing industries. To date, the scale has tipped in favor of development, and one of the most irrevocable outcomes may be the extinction of the […]

Pebble Redux: The Bears of Amakdedori | Full Film Now Online

By | July 8, 2020

There are few icons of wilderness as powerful as the bears of southwest Alaska. With thousands of them living wild on the Alaska Peninsula, they play crucial roles as ecosystem curators and economic drivers, drawing wildlife lovers from all over the world who support the region’s lucrative sustainable bear viewing industry.  Once regarded as untouchable, […]

The Pebble Partnership: Still Tone Deaf After All these Years

By | June 21, 2020

First impressions are often telling. Inletkeeper first met with Northern Dynasty in Homer in 2005, before the Candian junior mining interest – which had never before developed a mining project – formed the Pebble Limited Partnership.  The meeting was cordial but somewhat fraught, because Northern Dynasty had recently announced plans to dig a massive hole […]

Hilcorp Wants to Increase Toxic Dumping in Cook Inlet. And ADEC is happy to help.

By | June 2, 2020

TAKE ACTION NOW: https://inletkeeper.org/hilcorpdumping/ CHECK OUT OUR SHORT VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT5Fqlfbubs In today’s increasingly greedy world, oil and gas companies will go to just about any length to make as much profit as possible. And Texas-based Hilcorp is the poster child for profits at any cost. Since it gobbled up the lion’s share of oil and […]

Agency Experts: Pebble Review Still Fails the Test

By | May 12, 2020

When Pebble’s draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) came out last year, it was widely panned as a superficial nothing burger, designed simply to push the project to the next stage of the process.  How bad was it? So bad that agencies reporting to Donald Trump and Mike Dunleavy had this to say:   The Department of […]

Feige Shows State Bias in Pebble Letter to Corps

By | April 29, 2020

When it comes to development projects like the Pebble mine, our state agencies in Alaska are supposed to be neutral arbiters.  They can call balls and strikes, and but they’re not supposed to hit home runs for one side or another. But a recent letter from the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources makes […]

Dan Sullivan Needs to Tell the Army Corps: Support Alaskans, Not Pebble

By | April 6, 2020

Alaskans fighting the Pebble mine have largely focused their ire on Senator Lisa Murkowski, because she’s the more moderate politician and someone who might actually do something.  Dan Sullivan, on the other hand, has largely escaped scrutiny, because Alaskans know he’s a shameless toady for the billionaire Koch dynasty and deep in the pocket of […]

Inletkeeper Joins Alaska Natives in Lawsuit Over Donlin Pipeline

By | March 19, 2020

Today, Cook Inletkeeper joined four Native Tribes in a legal challenge to the Dunleavy Administration’s decision to let Donlin Gold build a 315 mile-long gas pipeline across hundreds of fish streams from Cook Inlet to Donlin’s mine site next to the Kuskokwim River.  Lawyers from Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in Alaska Superior Court in Anchorage […]

Donlin Gold: Standing Firmly Against Free Speech for Iditarod Mushers

By | March 17, 2020

The Iditarod is truly the Last Great Race.  But it has also struggled for funding in recent years, and in 2016, it capitulated to major sponsors – including Donlin Gold – to install a “gag rule,” which prohibits mushers from criticizing race sponsors, among others. Rule 53 of the Iditarod Official 2020 Rules states: “All Iditarod mushers will be held […]

New Report Tells the Real Story about Large Mines in Alaska

By | March 9, 2020

Inletkeeper recently reported about Alaska’s unenviable status as the most toxic state in America due to pollution from large metal mines.  Today, a new report issued today by Earthworks pulls back the curtain on Alaska’s phony  permitting scheme, with key findings about pollution violations from large Alaskan mines that include: 100% – All five mines […]

Mike Dunleavy vs. Coastal Alaskans

By | March 2, 2020

It’s curious why any Governor would continually poke a stick into the eye of his constituents, but Mike Dunleavy seems to have a unique penchant for it. In just the past several months, Mike Dunleavy’s apparent distaste for coastal Alaskans has taken a variety of forms, including: Loss of Ferry Service:  In perhaps his biggest […]

Who is in the Room?

By | February 20, 2020

Youth Voices are Integral in Creating a Just Transition to a Regenerative and Fossil Fuel Free Economy in Alaska by Satchel Pondolfino When you walk into a decision-making space, take note of who is in the room. The decisions that come out of that room are going to reflect those people and their world views. […]

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