Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke out against the proposed Pebble Mine on Sunday, saying in a statement that the Bristol Bay region is “no place for a mine,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Biden said he stands by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Obama-era proposal to block the project under the Clean Water Act. The agency said in 2014 that the mine could jeopardize the Bristol Bay fishery, which is the region’s main economic driver and home to nearly half the world’s wild sockeye salmon.
The EPA reversed course in 2019 under the Trump administration, allowing the project to proceed. The Army Corps of Engineers recently concluded the mine won’t have a measurable impact on the millions of salmon that return to the southwest Alaska bay every year. A decision on a key Army Corps permit for the mine is expected soon. Pebble also faces a separate state permitting process.
But as the federal decision nears, the mine faces opposition from both sides of the political aisle, including questions from Alaska’s junior U.S. senator. Republican Dan Sullivan says he also has reservations about the proposed copper and gold mine.
“You know, I’m increasingly concerned that the Corps and Pebble have not met the high bar that is needed to mitigate what could be a huge amount of risk to the aquatic life in the region. So, still looking at it, but I’m growing increasingly concerned on that topic.”
Sullivan made the comments shortly after a roundtable with local leaders in Ketchikan.
President Donald Trump has also said he’d listen to arguments for and against the mine. The vice president’s former chief of staff, Nick Ayers recently came out against Pebble on Twitter. Then, quoting Ayers, Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted his own opposition to the mine, saying Bristol Bay’s salmon streams are “too unique and fragile to take any chances with.”
Pebble Limited Partnership, the company behind the proposal, maintains the mine won’t hurt the Bristol Bay fishery, citing the Army Corps environmental study.
