Did you ever get slapped for doing the right thing? That’s how Cook Inletkeeper feels after the Alaska Oil & Gas Commission (AOGCC) recently announced its final rule on whether Alaskans should get public notice and an opportunity to comment on hydraulic fracking operations in their communities. And make no mistake, the AOGCC’s response is a...
Recent filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission reveal the many corporations and trade groups opposed to the Stand for Salmon Initiative, which is the ballot measure sponsored by Alaskans to update our 60-year old fish habitat laws. No one should be surprised our corporate “partners” oppose stronger safeguards for our salmon streams,...
These Corporations Have Rigged the Salmon Protection System By Bob Shavelson, Advocacy Director I’ve been working on water quality and salmon habitat issues in Alaska for over 20 years. And over all this time, I’ve learned a few painful but obvious lessons. First, our governments have stopped trying to protect our fish habitat. Yes, we hear all...
The Mat-Su Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership held its 10th annual Salmon Science and Conservation Symposium this month in Palmer. Cook Inletkeeper's Science Director had the honor of offering welcoming remarks to the crowd of salmon enthusiasts from local government, business, federally recognized tribes, scientists, nonprofits, subsistence...
Why is a women’s group attacking clean water safeguards?The answer tells a larger story about how massive corporations have bought our government and our politicians. And it’s on prominent display in the Last Frontier. In 2015, the Obama Administration adopted a long-needed rule to clarify the Clean Water Act’s wetlands protection provisions. ...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION June 21, 2017 Bob Shavelson (907.299.3277) ANCHORAGE—Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a lease sale for tracts in the federal waters of Lower Cook Inlet. Unlike the previous three sales, Lease Sale 244 garnered bids, though only one company – Hilcorp – participated in the sale. “Lease 244...
March 24 marks 28 years since the Exxon Valdez “fetched up, ah, hard aground” on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, laying a path of destruction across Alaska’s coastal ecosystems and the countless lives they support. While Exxon officials worked hard to convince the world it spilled “only” 10.8 million gallons of crude—ostensibly to pay lower...
On February 8, Alaskans learned Texas-based Hilcorp Alaska had “discovered” a large leak from a natural gas fuel line supplying power to platforms on Middle Ground Shoal in Cook Inlet. Several weeks later, we learned Hilcorp knew – or should have known – about the leak months earlier, in December 2016 or earlier. While ongoing pollution and lax...
