Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.
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 […]
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 […]
It was just another Friday in the Great Land, which meant just another assault from the Dunleavy Administration on Alaska wild salmon and the people who try to protect them. Today the Dunleavy Administration announced new proposed rules to strip Alaskans of their right to keep water in wild salmon streams. Not surprisingly, the proposed […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Background: The Exxon Valdez Trustees Council (EVOSTC) was established after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill to oversee restoration of the injured ecosystem through the use of the $900 million civil settlement. The Council consists of three state and three federal trustees (or their designees). The Council is advised by members of the public and by members of […]
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 […]
As the fishing season hit its stride this summer, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Jason Brune sent a letter to commercial fishermen about the hazards of dumping raw sewage close to shore. And while sewage management — especially on smaller boats — can be a challenge, Mr. Brune was right. It’s illegal to dump […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On June 2, 2020, a federal court ruled the Trump EPA must revise rules governing the Clean Water Act’s National Contingency Plan – which covers oil spill prevention and response in Alaska and across the United States. Inletkeeper joined Alaska Natives and other plaintiffs in the litigation to force EPA to comply with the law […]
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 […]
Government bureaucrats love to highlight Alaska’s work protecting our environment, because it helps sell the idea that Alaska’s “open for business.” The big mining, oil and gas corporations also like to tout Alaska’s green bona fides, because it helps insulate them from public criticism. There’s only one problem: it’s all a lie. That’s because Alaska’s […]
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 […]
Barack Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel once famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before.” Emmanuel must have had a crystal ball to channel the Trump Administration when he uttered those prescient words. […]
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 […]
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 […]
In 1984, a cyanide gas leak from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people in what’s been called the world’s worst industrial disaster. Less than a year after the Bhopal disaster, a Union Carbide plant in Institute, West Virginia, suffered another chemical leak which sent dozens of […]
On January 28, the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) announced it had been overestimating the number of endangered beluga whales for years in Cook Inlet, and said the “population is estimated to be smaller and declining more quickly than previously thought.” Two days later, Inletkeeper joined the Center for Biological Diversity in a notice of […]
Kohtr’elneyh • Remembering Forward • Alaska’s Just Transition Summit, January 8 – 10, 2020 • Fairbanks Kohtr’elneyh (We Remember) is the Lower Tanana language of the Benhti’ Kenaga So what is a Just Transition? Just Transition initiatives shift the economy from dirty energy to community-controlled energy: from funding new roads to expanding public transit, from incinerators […]
Local businesses, voters and property owners around Lower Cook Inlet responded recently to the Dunleavy Administration’s abrupt decision last week to unravel safeguards to Kachemak Bay. On November 19, ADFG staff notified its planning team the “governor’s office decided to repeal the PWC [Personal Watercraft] prohibition” for the Kachemak Bay Critical Habitat Area. The notice […]
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has extended public comment on proposals to transfer BP pipelines and other assets – including BP’s interests in the Trans Alaska Pipeline (TAPs) to Hilcorps. The new deadline is December 13, 2019. While BP and Hilcorp have negotiated this deal for more than a year, the RCA has made an […]
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Americans joined together to secure some of the best air, land and water protections in the world. Then the pendulum started to swing back, with billions of dollars from corporations, think tanks and phony “astroturf” groups pushing an aggressive anti-consumer, anti-environment agenda. Today, from Koch Industries to Exxon, and from […]
Hilcorp’s seismic air gun blasting program started in full force this past weekend, with the seismic vessel Polarcus Alima running transects across some of the most important fish and whale habitat in Lower Cook Inlet. You can get an update on Hilcorp’s daily seismic blasting plans here, and you can call-in every morning at 10:00 […]
As fishermen left the Homer Harbor Monday morning (September 9) to longline halibut in Lower Cook Inlet, the 273’ seismic vessel Polarcus Alima darkened the horizon in Kachemak Bay. The vessel had turned off its AIS vessel tracking system after leaving Japan last week, but local fishermen and whale scientists quickly spotted the giant vessel […]
ANCHORAGE— Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s approval of rules allowing Hilcorp Alaska LLC to harm Cook Inlet beluga whales and other marine mammals as it expands its offshore oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet. Cook Inletkeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in […]
Seismic air guns used for oil and gas exploration produce the loudest underwater noise next to explosions and warfare, and they can have devastating impacts on marine life. As a fisherman from Newfoundland put it, “Whenever a seismic boat goes past and we drop our gear, the fish aren’t there. Any fisherman, or fisherman worth […]
Climate Crisis Sends Stream Temperatures Off the Charts As Alaskans suffer through the smoke, haze and danger of a record-breaking heat wave, Alaska’s salmon are suffering too. On July 7th, stream temperatures topped 81.7 F (27.6 C) in the Deshka River, a major salmon stream on the west side of Cook Inlet in the Mat […]
The recent heat wave and forest fires ravaging Alaska are yet another reminder that the Last Frontier lies on the front lines of rapid climate change. Through the smoky haze, however, one thing remains clear: the billionaire Koch Brothers have their hands around the throat of democracy in Alaska, and Mike Dunleavy is their dutiful […]
Cook Inletkeeper today called-out the Dunleavy Administration for weakening a key Clean Water Act permit that will allow the oil and gas industry to increase toxic dumping in prime salmon, halibut, and beluga whale habitat. The proposed permit covers oil and gas production wastes from offshore platforms and other facilities in Cook Inlet. [Read comments […]
< Submit your Public Comment online here > When I interviewed for my job with Cook Inletkeeper in 1995, the hiring committee handed me a draft Clean Water Act permit for oil and gas discharges in Cook Inlet, and asked me how I would change it to reduce pollution. Twenty four years later I still […]
Act NOW to Protect Salmon Habitat – Comments Due March 22 BACKGROUND: The proposed Donlin mine along the banks of the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska would be a massive open gold mine. To power the facility, Donlin plans a 315 mile-long natural gas pipeline from Cook Inlet through the Skwentna, Yentna and Kuskokwim drainages. […]
As Wally Hickle famously stated, Alaska is the “owner state.” It’s past time we started to act like one.
Sue Mauger, Science Director at Cook Inletkeeper, connects the dots on climate change and calls out the negligence of Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in his administration’s swift removal of the Climate Action Plan from the official State website. Sign the petition to the Governor, Here! Originally Published in Alaska Dispatch News, Dec. 28, 2018 When our new governor […]
It’s no secret the corporate campaign against the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative has amassed more than $10 million to try to stop Alaskans from updating our 60-year-old, one-sentence-long salmon habitat law. But there’s a darker effort unfolding behind the scenes, and it’s not pretty. Pebble, Donlin, ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum and the other big corporations […]
Did you know that in the Cook Inlet, oil & gas operators can legally dump toxic waste into coastal fisheries? That’s right – Oil & gas corporations are allowed to dump over 100,000 gallons of oil and grease and over 835,000 pounds of metals such as mercury, nickel, copper, manganese and zinc into the Cook […]
In Inletkeepers’ blog series, ‘The Corporate War on Salmon’, our Advocacy Director, Bob Shavelson, examined the campaign disclosure of so-called ‘Stand For Alaska’ to reveal that this supposed ‘broad statewide coalition’ is backed by an elite who’s who of corporate special interest in our state. As you can see in the records, over 80% of […]
Gov. Walker’s Climate Leadership Team is collecting public comment for a draft policy response to the causes and impacts of climate change. Comment before JUNE 4 Have you heard about ” The Blob”? It’s a monsterous meterological phenomenon that super heated North Pacific waters starting in 2014 and was directly connected to a 70% decline in Pacific Cod stocks. Combined with […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Wild salmon define who we are as Alaskans; they shape our cultures, they feed our families and they support our local economies. Yet today, Alaska’s laws and rules contain few hard and fast safeguards to protect the water and other habitat salmon need to thrive. More specifically, there is no requirement to retain sufficient water […]
Scott Pruitt is a climate change denier. As a Oklahoma Attorney General he has sued the EPA more than a dozen times to try to block regulations that protect our air, water and climate. There are a lot of frightening nominees to speak out against right now, but we believe Scott Pruitt is one of […]
The Issue: Current rules do not allow Alaskans to review and comment on applications for oil & gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations near their homes and communities. In September 2016, Inletkeeper petitioned the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) to amend its rules and make permits to conduct oil and gas hydraulic fracturing subject […]
