Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.
Thank you to all the happy salmon supporters who connected with us at this year’s Salmonfest. The long hard work paid off, we are always happy to make a splash in the chaotic and joyous vortex that Salmonfest is. From a line-up of Salmon Champions speaking from the River Stage, to salmon dinner, to a […]
The Paris Agreement seeks to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels to give the planet a decent chance of avoiding the worst outcomes of climate change. To hit this target, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for reducing carbon emissions by 40-60% by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2050-2070. […]
It’s been a little over a year since Hilcorp warned the local utilities, which depend on their gas supply, not to rely on future supply contracts from them. Since then, our four regional electric co-ops and gas distributor ENSTAR have been studying the cost and benefits of gas from other sources, including imported liquified natural gas (LNG) […]
In a recent decision hitting Hilcorp with a $265,500 fine for violating an approved drilling plan, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) cited the company’s “track record of regulatory noncompliance.” It sounds a lot like the AOGCC fine Hilcorp received in 2020, which also cited “a history of regulatory noncompliance,” as well as Hilcorp’s “lack of […]
As the global climate crisis intensifies, its impact beyond ecological concerns is increasingly evident. Climate change affects us all, but it disproportionately affects vulnerable communities, including the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Environmental justice recognizes that marginalized communities often bear the disproportionate brunt of its consequences and strives to address the intersecting inequalities exacerbated by climate change. The intersectionality […]
It took less than 13 years for oil from Prudhoe Bay, traveling down the new Trans-Alaska Pipeline, to smother the coast and the life it sustained in Prince William Sound and beyond. From 1977 to 1989, the corporate and political promises seemed to be paying off for Alaskans. All the concerns about the potential risks […]
Vote online in the HEA election here, or send your mail-in ballot by May 4. We can’t predict what energy system we’ll have in 2030, but it won’t be the one we have today.Since the 1960s, the majority of our electricity has been fueled by Cook Inlet natural gas. In January, the state forecast that […]
The Biden administration just approved exports from the Alaska LNG project, another carbon bomb that will lock us into 30 more years of planet-warming emissions. This massive $38 billion project involves building an 800-mile natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to an export terminal in Nikiski. The project will emit 2.7 billion metric tons […]
A Hilcorp contractor – SAExploration Seismic Services – is seeking a Miscellaneous Land Use Permit from the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to conduct a seismic survey this spring. To conduct the survey, SAE will detonate explosive shocks at 55-feet intervals along a 5.4 mile transect encompassing land, tidal and waters around and north of Anchor […]
In April Inletkeeper will be supporting three pro-renewable energy candidates for the Homer Electric Association Board of Directors. All three are committed to driving down costs by reducing HEA’s natural gas consumption, the cause of about a third of the co-op’s spending and a growing vulnerability as affordable supplies of Cook Inlet gas diminish. This […]
Cook Inlet natural gas – the fuel for roughly 85% of our region’s electricity – could fall short by 2027, according to a report released in January by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Previous DNR gas supply studies have estimated that prices would need to increase by 50-100% by 2030 for gas extraction to […]
Nowhere is the disconnect between energy policy and climate impacts more evident than in Cook Inlet. In the same waters covered in last month’s federal Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258, federal fisheries managers closed the highly-lucrative Pacific cod fishery in 2019-2020, and they cited – for the first time ever – climate change as […]
After canceling the sale in May of 2022, the Biden Administration moved forward with leasing Alaska’s Lower Cook Inlet—resulting in only 1 bid on 1 block out of 193. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 30, 2022 Press Contact: Grace Nolan, grace@team-arc.com; Sue Mauger, sue@inletkeeper.org (Anchorage, Alaska) – Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held […]
This has been a frustrating year! Yet another Pebble mine comment period. Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet is happening tomorrow despite being canceled in May. The Cook Inlet beluga whale population is not improving. Our carbon emissions continue to go up, not down as is desperately needed. The best part […]
Groups cite Department of Interior’s failure to meaningfully consider climate impacts of auctioning off close to a million acres FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 21, 2022 MEDIA CONTACTSBecca Bowe, Earthjustice (Pacific time), rbowe@earthjustice.org Jackson Chiappinelli, Earthjustice (Eastern time), (585) 402-2005, jchiappinelli@earthjustice.org Anne Hawke, NRDC, (646) 823-4518 ahawke@nrdc.org Sue Mauger, Cook Inletkeeper, (907) 399-2070, sue@inletkeeper.org Penelope Haas, […]
The energy prospects on the horizon in December 2022 are very different from those of December 2021, and in December 2023, the picture is likely to be different once again. With action and engagement, we can make it a much brighter one. Mitigating the destruction that climate change is bringing to our ecosystems and lifestyles […]
Just weeks after January 6th 2021, a moment in U.S. history when dark clouds of hopelessnessand anxiousness overshadowed what should have been a celebration of democracy, AmandaGorman became the youngest inaugural poet, reciting her poem “The Hill We Climb” at thepresidential swearing-in ceremony. Her poem inspired hope and offered the nation a collectivecall to action! […]
It’s easy to feel alone in the conviction that now is the time to stop developingnew oil & gas leases in Alaska. In 2022, we’ve seen Congress mandate that Lease Sale 258 in the federal watersof Lower Cook Inlet move forward before the end of the year; and the BidenAdministration expressing support for the Alaska […]
With the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we saw steps forward on climate and clean energy but also steps backward, burdened with expanded oil & gas leasing and fast-tracked mining in Alaska. Linking clean energy development to decades of continued fossil fuel development impedes our goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, […]
80% of Southcentral Alaska’s electricity is generated by natural gas turbines, and about a third of our electric bills go to fueling them. All this gas is extracted from beneath or around Cook Inlet, and for decades this local market has grown increasingly precarious. This April, the near-monopoly supplier of gas to our utilities, Hilcorp, […]
Since our last update, the Inflation Reduction Act passed, bringing with it a mandate to hold Lease Sale 258 in the federal waters of Lower Cook Inlet before the end of 2022. Although we can’t stop this unpopular sale from moving forward, Inletkeeper and partners will be monitoring the level of industry interest to push […]
Cook Inletkeeper has been fighting alongside our supporters for our collective vision of Cook Inlet for the last 27 years. This vision has focused on clean water, healthy salmon, and strong communities. One central theme of this fight has been limiting oil and gas development and corresponding pollution. That vision is still central today. Inletkeeper’s […]
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.
If you are like me, you feel like we just celebrated Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet being taken off the table. Unfortunately, as many of you are only too familiar with, we are again facing a proposed lease sale in Lower Cook Inlet. President Biden and the Department of Interior proposed a five-year plan […]
*The following is not financial advice. We are providing information as part of our own journey to understand this technology and where it fits into our commitment to climate, our communities, and art as advocacy. Inletkeeper has been selected to receive a portion of the proceeds from Cryosphere, an NFT created by Epoch Gallery, a […]
On Monday, I saw a helicopter pilot I hadn’t seen in 14 years. Stan piloted my first trip in Bristol Bay to sample small headwater streams near the Pebble deposit. Seeing Stan brought up a flood of memories and names of people who have contributed to the decades of work to protect Bristol Bay, each […]
Over the three-day Nughelnik: Alaska Just Transition Summit in Anchorage May 20-22, Inletkeeper staff joined 500 other attendees from around the State of Alaska. Organized by The Alaska Just Transition Collective – a coalition of Alaska partners building a shared visionary path for Alaska by addressing the growing political, economic, and ecological crises we face. The goals […]
“It’s time to find our way back to what our ancestors had. Our people come from just economies, and we need to bring everyone with us, especially those most intent on destroying the Earth because we can’t afford that anymore” – Karlin Itchoak, Alaska State Director at the Wilderness Society This past May, many of […]
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 […]
Working together, Alaskans are a powerful force for positive change in our communities. Let’s roll up our sleeves and put local solutions into action! We’ve all seen what happens when outsiders come in and do things without meaningful input from locals: We get cookie cutter houses built for Florida winters where all the roofs shed […]
Late on Wednesday the Biden Administration quietly announced that the Department of Interior would not be pursuing Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet. First, we are thankful! Alaskans have been fighting the industrialization of Cook Inlet since the 90s and each of these victories is important for our communities that rely […]
The blue lines on topographic maps necessarily under-represent the complex movement of freshwater across floodplains, through wetlands and gravel bars. For a juvenile fish, the blue lines are experienced as a maze of currents, temperature, food and hiding places, while a migrating adult salmon wends its way along the blue lines of riffles and pools […]
An abbreviated version of this piece was initially published in our Spring 2022 newsletter. When America began to electrify, lights came on first in cities. It made commercial sense: the city’s affluent could easily foot the cost of power, and urban density meant less line to lay and easier maintenance. Electricity beyond the city made […]
After a short winter lull, Inletkeeper’s programs start revving up come spring. One program that Kenai Peninsula residents have grown to count on are our annual spring electronics recycling events. This year is no different. Mark your calendars for April 30th for our annual e-recycling events in Soldotna and Homer. Drop off your old devices […]
Homer Electric Association has officially begun its board of directors election, mailing out ballots on April 4. Use your power in our co-op – vote and mail them back by May 3rd. These often-overlooked elections have deep and long-lasting effects on the lives of Kenai Peninsula residents, and on the economies of our region and […]
This year will mark 50 years since Congress passed and enacted the Clean Water Act (CWA) after our nation’s rivers literally caught fire. This disregard of pollution was not unique to the Lower 48 as Alaska fishermen were finding blobs of oil floating in the ocean from passing tankers. While the Clean Water Act isn’t […]
Almost a million acres in the Susitna Basin are under threat by a plan by the state to issue two licenses for exploration and possibly future drilling for Coalbed methane. (links to the state documents below) Take action here – this link will take you to a form to email the Division of Oil and […]
Like the rest of the world, we at Inletkeeper are watching the Russian invasion unfold in Ukraine. Our heart goes out to those caught in the crossfire and those fearing for the safety of friends and family. While we have been processing this crisis, we also are digesting the dire warning in the latest IPCC […]
Cook Inletkeeper has been keeping a watchful eye on the west side of the Susitna River for years. When the state of Alaska permitted a 315-mile right-of-way for a gas pipeline to fuel the proposed Donlin Gold Mine, cutting a massive swath from Cook Inlet, over the Alaska Range to the mine site, we joined […]
How does a community organizer cultivate and captivate a room full of energy without sharing physical space? What draws people in when gathering and sharing a meal just isn’t possible? If there is one thing organizing during a pandemic has taught me it is that we need each other. I love organizing because I love […]
Salmon are no canaries. They have robust life-history strategies and diverse habitat needs. If we keep their freshwater habitat cold, clean and intact and their marine food web stable without large blobs of warm water, wild Pacific salmon will persist and continue to contribute to global and local food security. Their greatest vulnerability is that […]
You look at seed catalogs in December. You buy snow blowers in June. You mend nets in August. You prepare for your future guided by your hopes for the future. So let’s all brush aside the fog of uncertainty clouding our vision over these last 18 months and prepare for the future we want in […]
The past 18 months have illuminated the tremendous unsustainable practices and social inequities throughout many sectors, including our globalized food system. We have seen food processors fall ill from lack of sick leave and protective equipment. Severely delayed global supply chains have led to massive food waste and higher food costs. Lost incomes have exacerbated […]
The climate damage of fossil fuels has been widely known since at least the 1980s, and as an Inletkeeper, you don’t need reminding how hazardous its infrastructure is for our watershed. Still, in the past it’s been creditable to say that with cheap, abundant natural gas, and with renewable energy technologies just not ready to […]
Within Inletkeeper’s 26 year lifetime, we’ve experienced a rapid change in the communications and media landscape. The technology that once seemed far off and of the future is here now. This landscape and the mediums available for spreading our message and empowering action will continue to shift and grow. The advent of the world wide […]
I’ve never been a fan of scary movies. All the anticipation and fear of knowing that bad things are around the corner – and there’s nothing to do about it – is not my idea of fun. I think that’s why I’ve been committed to monitoring salmon stream health during this time of rapid change. […]
I am incredibly honored by Bob, Sue, and of your trust as I step into the role Bob has, seemingly effortlessly, managed for so many years. As I inherit the “Inletkeeper” title from Bob, I’d like to share my vision for the future of the Cook Inlet watershed in the decades ahead: Alaska’s economy has […]
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 14, 2021 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Liz Mering, Inletkeeper (907.235.3459) FEDS IGNORE SERIOUS IMPACTS TO TRIBAL COMMUNITIES, FISHERIES, WILDLIFE & BUSINESSES IN COOK INLET President Biden promised no more offshore oil leasing, and Alaskans push the administration to use this authority and cancel Lease Sale 258 HOMER, AK […]
Lease ART Sale 258 Update: Thank you all for a successful Art Sale 258 and Draft Environmental Impact Statement comment period! We are able to do this work because of member support from concerned citizens like you. Please donate today to protect Cook Inlet for our future generations. In the world we wish to inhabit, there is no […]
This Thursday is complex. Many of us grew up spending the day with friends and family celebrating Thanksgiving. But Thursday is also a National Day of Mourning where we must remember our nation’s tragic history with the indigenous peoples who have called North America home from time immemorial. We are trying to recognize both of […]
