U.S. House votes to stop corrupt Pebble approval process

ANCHORAGE—The U.S. House of Representatives today voted to block funding for the corrupt process hurtling the underfunded, scientifically lacking Pebble Mine toward “yes” over Tribal, scientific, fisheries and Alaskan objections. The block came in the form of an amendment to the minibus spending package — H.R. 7617 — that defunds a Record of Decision for the proposed Pebble Mine.

“We’re grateful to Rep. Huffman, Reps. DeFazio, Speier, Levin and Rouda, and the U.S. House of Representatives, for standing up for American food security, jobs, people, and Bristol Bay’s irreplaceable way of life,” said SalmonState executive director Tim Bristol. “Bristol Bay provides 14,000 jobs, adds $1.5 billion annually to the U.S. economy, and supplies more than half the world’s sockeye salmon — yet the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working hand in glove with the Pebble Partnership to speed approval of a massive open-pit gold and copper mine and toxic waste dump at the headwaters of this incredible resource, which more than 55 million sockeye salmon returned to just this year. Two to one, Alaskans hate this project. It’s time for Alaska’s own Congressional Delegation to get off the fence, to defend one of Alaska’s greatest wild salmon resources, and to tell the EPA to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to stop this corrupt process and veto Pebble.”