Biden set to block Alaska road key to accessing planned mine. (Washington Post)
The Biden administration is set to block a controversial road crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska, saying it would threaten Indigenous communities and fragment wildlife habitat, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The expected decision on Ambler Road reflects the administration’s selective approach toward boosting domestic mining of minerals used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and other clean-energy technologies. It underscores the challenges facing President Biden as he balances an ambitious climate agenda with the need to protect vulnerable communities and pristine wilderness.
The timing of the move, which was first reported by Politico, is still in flux, although it could come as soon as this week, according to the two people familiar with the matter. An Interior spokesman declined to comment.
Interior is expected to find that there should be “no action” on the federal land where the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) wants to build the 211-mile Ambler Road. That would prevent AIDEA from receiving a permit to build the road, and it would effectively block the mining venture Ambler Metals from accessing the planned open-pit mine. The company has yet to seek or obtain permits for the mine.
AIDEA had planned for Ambler Road to extend 211 miles, crossing 11 major rivers and breaking apart unspoiled tundra. Twenty-six of those miles would have carved through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, sending giant trucks rumbling through wild lands where tens of thousands of caribou migrate.
The Trump administration approved a right-of-way permit for Ambler Road in 2020, saying it could provide access to significant copper and cobalt deposits. But after Biden took office, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland ordered a fresh review of the road, saying the prior administration had not adequately studied its environmental impact.
In an analysis released last year, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management found that the road would threaten Alaska Natives and their lifestyles more than previously thought. The agency identified 66 communities whose hunting, fishing and other subsistence activities could be affected, up from 27 communities in a highly contested 2020 analysis completed during the Trump administration.
Interior also warned that the road would alter the movement and migration of caribou and other animals, partly because of vehicle noise. With climate change and development already putting pressure on caribou herds, the road could reduce calving and survival rates, the analysis said.
So there are some perks to living in a tourist destination. There are a lot of detractors mostly that you cannot shoot the tourists because you rely on them for your income but you have a semi captive audience with no context for any of the bullshit you spew. You can tell these people anything and they will believe you, the trusted friendly local. Now this is a very much Spider-Man situation where Great Power begets Great Audacity and even worse Responsibility.
My buddy goes on a run and when hes done there is a bar near a creek. So he wades into the creek because the day is hot and the water is cold.
Tourists ask what hes up to, with his running stuff he didn't want wet piled on the shore and him very obviously cooling off in the water. He says he's fishing.
But now here is why I am telling you this story. The universe occasionally aligns in such a way that we get to really really fuck with people and their perception of said universe. The opportunities do not come often and when they come you must seize the day. This is what my buddy did.
So this Creek runs through town and as a result of the highway and neighborhoods and culverts and roads it does not have a great salmon run. It's a short Creek the headwaters are only a few miles from the ocean it never had a great salmon run to begin with. But there are salmon.
One such fish brushes past my buddy's leg. Immediately he knees the fish like he is juggling a soccer ball and pops it out of the water, then slaps it out of the air on to the shore.
This is dumb luck. He could not do this again if he spent years training. Noodling (catching fish with your hands) is a thing that is legal to do with salmon but it is so much harder than literally every other way to catch salmon, including grabbing them with a garbage can. What he just managed is the kind of thing that should make you want to grab the fish and swing it around your head like a stripper with her panties off.
But,
He has an audience.
This is the opportunity offered by the universe.
He plays it cool.
He puts on dead pan straight face on and wades up to shore to grab his fish and nod to the tourists. Someone asks something and he assures them this is the standard way to get a quick dinner here. The tour guide has caught up with his group. He looks at my buddy and his fish and the general lack of fishing accoutrement. Without missing a beat, the guide backs up every ounce of bullshit out of my buddys mouth because if there is one true fraternity it is locals bullshitting stupid tourists.
happy pride month! i hope you are blossoming into your favorite self
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤
image id: a collage of close-up photos of flowers, arranged in vertical stripes to form a rainbow. from left to right: pink rhododendrons, red rhododendrons, orange poppies, yellow lilies, green leaves, blue poppies, purple irises, and violet lilacs.
To be clear, Biden approved an oil project that will release an estimated 287 million metric tons of emissions over 30 years and likely harm local wildlife. But yay for 300 long-term jobs.
A reminder of what Biden campaigned on in 2020: “No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill”
Joel Jackson, the president of the Organized Village of Kake, a tribal community, has lived within the Tongass National Forest in Alaska his entire life. His community relies on the land for hunting deer and fishing salmon that swim in streams kept cold by the old-growth forest.
But the 66-year-old worried about damage to that land - the largest national forest in the US - after former President Donald Trump rescinded a measure blocking logging and road-building on nine million acres of land in the Tongass in 2020.
"The forest is key to our survival as a people, to our way of life … for thousands of years," Mr Jackson said.
Last week marked a long-awaited victory for Mr Jackson and other tribes and environmental groups who petitioned the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reinstate the protections for the forest.
The agency announced last Wednesday it would once again ban logging and the construction of roads for cutting timber in over half of the Tongass.