They say politics makes strange bedfellows

By Sandra Wirtz

Director of Research and Staff Blogger

American Resources Policy Network www.americanresources.org

The EPA’s pending assessment of the Pebble Deposit in Alaska, which may well be the largest domestic Copper deposit in U.S. history, shows that this is not just an empty phrase.

We have previously covered the issues surrounding the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment on your blog, and considering the far-reaching and precedent-setting implications of the issue at hand; here is  some insight into the latest – and somewhat surprising – developments relating to the push by environmental groups for an (unprecedented) pre-emptive EPA veto of the project.

Over the last few weeks, we have seen the Washington Post’s editorial board and the left-leaning Center for American Progress come out in favor of letting the established permitting process take its course. As American Resources Policy Network Principal Daniel McGroarty points out in his latest op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal:

This is the first instance of a fissure in the unofficial anti-mining alliance that wants to see the EPA acquire vast new powers. With luck, more groups will emulate the Center for American Progress’s principled position.

Meanwhile, zealous opponents of responsible domestic resource development remain oblivious to the inherent irony of the environmental credo: The clean energy future they envision relies heavily on the very minerals the development of which they like to demonize.

In his piece, McGroarty takes on the claim that the Pebble project would be “one of the worst projects anywhere in the world today,” – quite an outrageous statement made by NRDC official Joel Reynolds not too long ago, particularly when considering the dismal conditions at copper mines in Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where child labor or work without proper protective gear are common practice.

The bottom line is this:

Environmental activists often preach that the planet is interconnected. Well, that’s certainly true of the global marketplace: Every pound of copper left in the ground in Alaska or the Lower 48 is effectively a price support for producers in the places like Zambia and Angola.

If the EPA reinterprets existing law—Section 404 of the Clean Water Act—and grants itself unilateral authority to stop the permitting process before it begins, Pebble Mine won’t be the only project in its cross hairs, and copper won’t be the only metal. A 2011 study by the Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm, shows that U.S. economic development projects worth more than $200 billion would be exposed if the EPA asserts this new power.

President Obama recently said that we must weigh the opportunity cost of not building the Keystone XL pipeline. The same logic applies to the project at Pebble Mine—and the federal permitting process is the only place to do that.

The stakes are high, so please help spread the word by sharing this important issue.