New Pebble Tapes: Pebble expects Alaskans to pony up $1.5 billion for proposed mine

ANCHORAGE, AK—Two videos released by the Environmental Investigation Agency today as additions to “The Pebble Tapes” feature a top Pebble executive’s intention to use a $1.5 billion construction subsidy from the State of Alaska’s depleted coffers to ship Alaska’s resources to Asia; Pebble’s ties to Alaska’s elected officials at a state and federal level; and its expectations for what those elected officials will and won’t do in the months to come. In the two tapes, Canadian Ron Thiessen, the head of Northern Dynasty Minerals, Pebble’s Canadian parent company, also told the investors that elected officials lie about their positions during election season, saying “you (elected officials) aren’t held to your promises.” He also reiterated the State of Alaska’s support for the proposed Pebble Mine — support underlined by Governor Mike Dunleavy’s recent letters, which double down on his support for the project in spite of the lies the first set of tapes exposed.

The tapes also beg the question of why Thiessen is still around, while former Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier was forced to take the fall for both men’s boast that Pebble has manipulated officials to skate through the permitting system.

“The new additions to the Pebble Tapes underscore that Alaskans can not trust the company behind this project; that they have been pulling political strings for Pebble for years; and that they expect a massive amount of cash from Alaskans in order to make Pebble happen,” said SalmonState executive director Tim Bristol. “Not only would Pebble do irreversible damage to the planet’s greatest wild sockeye salmon fishery, it would be a huge drain on Alaska’s already terrible fiscal situation. The proposed Pebble Mine is a lie built by liars. It’s time to end the lie, once and for all, with an EPA veto of this toxic project under the Clean Water Act.”