inletkeeper

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

Energy & Alaska

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 […]

The road to energy security isn’t through Cook Inlet

By | September 16, 2022

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, […]

Act Now for Cook Inlet’s Future Beyond Oil & Gas

By | August 31, 2022

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 […]

White Noise and Our Vision for Cook Inlet

By | August 3, 2022

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 […]

PROPOSED BILL IN CONGRESS IGNORES ALASKANS, WOULD SACRIFICE COOK INLET

By | July 28, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2022 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Liz Mering, Inletkeeper (907.235.3459)  Marissa Wilson, Executive Director AMCC (907.299.6566)  PROPOSED BILL IN CONGRESS IGNORES ALASKANS, WOULD SACRIFICE COOK INLET 40 years of oil and gas development in undeveloped Lower Cook Inlet puts local economies at risk HOMER, AK – The proposed climate and energy package […]

Defend Your Vision for Cook Inlet

By | July 9, 2022

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 […]

Push Back Against Pebble Mine, One Last Time

By | June 16, 2022

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 […]

Visualizing a Just Transition

By | June 6, 2022

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 […]

Regenerative Economies: Cornerstones for a Just Transition

By | June 2, 2022

“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 […]

Meaningful Community Action: Let’s Get to Work!

By | May 18, 2022

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 […]

Oil & Gas Lease Sale 258 in Lower Cook Inlet Canceled

By | May 13, 2022

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 […]

Energy Democracy in Alaska

By | May 2, 2022

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 […]

Electronic Recycling: Inletkeeper’s Annual Game of Tetris

By | April 28, 2022

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 […]

How to Be an Advocate!

By | April 22, 2022

Are you ever on social media and you see articles titled something like “All the Things You’ve Been Doing Wrong Your Entire Life” or “Apparently eating chips isn’t as simple as popping them inside your mouth. No, there is a proper way to truly enjoy these crispy snacks.”  Now if there can be a right […]

Your Power. Your Vote.

By | April 6, 2022

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 […]

Say No to 404 Permitting in the State Budget!

By | April 3, 2022

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 […]

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 […]

War, Energy and the Climate Crisis

By | March 3, 2022

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 […]

Alaskans Still have the Freedom to Choose a Future with Salmon

By | December 23, 2021

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 […]

Energy for the future is here now

By | December 20, 2021

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 […]

A Vision for Cook Inlet’s Next 25 Years

By | December 15, 2021

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 […]

FEDS IGNORE SERIOUS IMPACTS TO TRIBAL COMMUNITIES, FISHERIES, WILDLIFE & BUSINESSES IN COOK INLET

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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 […]

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 […]

Create the World You Wish to Inhabit

By | December 9, 2021

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 […]

ART (NOT Lease) Sale 258

By | December 3, 2021

Friday, 3 December 2021: For Immediate Release Soldotna, AK: Five local artists from the Cook Inlet basin have come together to raise awareness about the federal government’s Lease Sale 258, which would open up over a million acres of Lower Cook Inlet to oil and gas development. The area, from below Kalgin Island down to […]

Protect our Bear Coast – Say No to Oil Spills

By | December 2, 2021

Fat Bear Week brings the wonder and joy of our Cook Inlet bears to people around the world!  This year–for the fourth time!!–Otis (or brown bear 480) was crowned king!  Otis–relying on the amazing rich nutrients in Katmai–ended the season weighing over 1,000 pounds. Not the largest bear of the bunch but a survivor! Otis […]

Thankful and Reflective

By | November 24, 2021

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 […]

We Cannot Wait for International Politics: Climate Action Now.

By | November 17, 2021

International politics, law, and negotiation are crazy things. They are essential for world-wide problems where without global commitment, we cannot likely achieve an outcome; but at the same time incredibly frustrating and more aspirational than proactive in trying to unite 197 nations to reach collective agreement on the right path forward.  And the “right” path […]

Playing Russian Roulette with Lower Cook Inlet

By | November 15, 2021

Over the last fifty years, U.S. waters  have been affected by almost 50 oil spills over 420,000 gallons.  A few of the most famous are:  Santa Barbara, California (1969): 3 million  gallons spilled from an offshore platform blowout creating a 35 mile long oil slick.  Exxon Valdez, Alaska (1989): 10.8 million gallons spilled from a […]

Make Your Voice Heard for the Inlet!

By | November 10, 2021

Last week we asked you – our Inletkeepers – to stand up for Lower Cook Inlet and say “no” to the proposed oil and gas lease sale in Lower Cook Inlet. If you haven’t already signed the petition, please do so at inletkeeper.org/ls258 – and then share with 5 friends (or five more friends!)! Many […]

You are Inletkeeper and Cook Inlet Needs You!

By | November 1, 2021

You are Inletkeeper – and NOW is a critical time to stand up for Cook Inlet. Last Friday, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed oil and gas lease sale in Lower Cook Inlet. We now have 45 days to explain to our government why this […]

Stand to Protect Lower Cook Inlet

By | October 14, 2021

In case you do not get our quarterly newsletter, Stand to Protect Lower Cook Inlet was originally printed there. If you want to get our print newsletter, you can do so by becoming a member here! Stand to Protect Lower Cook Inlet: www.tinyurl.com/LeaseSale258 Update: Since the time Inletkeeper wrote this article, the Biden Administration has […]

The Future of Lower Cook Inlet

By | October 6, 2021

This past weekend there was quite the stir in Homer as a jack-up rig came down Cook Inlet, into Kachemak Bay, and around the spit. Meanwhile, California communities were hit with the news of a massive oil spill from a pipeline leak off the southern coast. These events made me reflect on the history of […]

Inletkeeper joins Alaska Native Tribes in Lawsuit To Protect Fish from Donlin Mine

By | September 22, 2021

Cook Inletkeeper works to ensure our state government protects our wild salmon. We fought the state when it authorized the industry to destroy 11 miles of Alaskan salmon streams for the proposed Chuitna Coal Mine. Our Government and industry repeatedly claim that they would never trade one of Alaska’s resources (salmon) for another (coal). Yet […]

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 […]

Fish Should Not Be Controversial

By | August 9, 2021

The fact that fish need water and that Alaskans love their fish should not be controversial. But the House Fisheries Committee held a meeting to learn about the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) proposed changes to the regulations that allow Alaskans to keep water in streams for fish. Although DNR refused to show up, Cook […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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