alaska

‘The Wrong Mine in the Wrong Place’: Former Republican EPA Administrators Blast Alaska Mining Project

‘The Wrong Mine in the Wrong Place’: Former Republican EPA Administrators Blast Alaska Mining Project

By Taryn Kiekow Heimer An U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator under every Republican presidential administration since the EPA was created, except the Ford administration, whose administrator is deceased, have joined forces to make a statement in opposition to the Pebble Mine proposed in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Their statement appeared Tuesday as a full-page ad […]

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    Trump Administration Approves Exploratory Drilling in Arctic Ocean

    Trump Administration Approves Exploratory Drilling in Arctic Ocean

    The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a plan submitted by Eni US to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean, setting the stage for a devastating oil spill in one of the most biologically rich areas in America’s Arctic. The company, a U.S. subsidiary of the Italian oil and gas giant, has sat on its […]

    Trump’s EPA Just Revived Controversial Pebble Mine

    Trump’s EPA Just Revived Controversial Pebble Mine

    By Taryn Kiekow Heimer If the Trump administration’s strategy is to put a foreign mining company first—and America’s greatest wild salmon fishery dead last—then sadly it’s succeeding. Friday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) settled a lawsuit with Northern Dynasty Minerals—the Canadian junior mining company behind the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The […]

    CO2 Emissions Soar as Alaska Heats Up

    CO2 Emissions Soar as Alaska Heats Up

    The Alaskan tundra is releasing an increasingly large amount of CO2 due to a warmer climate, new research shows. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that CO2 emitted from the tundra between October and December of each year increased more than 70 percent from 1975 to 2015, likely […]

    690,000 Contiguous Acres in Alaska May Soon Be Open to Fracking

    690,000 Contiguous Acres in Alaska May Soon Be Open to Fracking

    By Steve Horn Hydraulic fracturing’s horizontal drilling technique has enabled industry to tap otherwise difficult-to-access oil and gas in shale basins throughout the U.S. and increasingly throughout the world. And now fracking, as it’s known, could soon arrive at a new frontier: Alaska. As Bloomberg reported in March, Paul Basinski, a pioneer of fracking in […]

    BP Arctic Oil Well Still Leaking, Too Unstable to Shut Down

    BP Arctic Oil Well Still Leaking, Too Unstable to Shut Down

    BP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials spent the holiday weekend trying to repair a leaking oil well on Alaska’s North Slope. Officials said the well is too unstable to shut down because of frigid temps in the high Arctic, but have released the pressure on one of the main leaks. It appears that 1.5 […]

    Fracking Comes to the Alaskan Arctic

    Fracking Comes to the Alaskan Arctic

    By Scott L. Montgomery Arctic lands and waters hold irresistible allure for global oil companies. Despite opposition from environmental groups and President Obama’s 2016 ban on drilling in federal Arctic waters, exploration in Alaska has revealed massive new volumes of oil. This comes at a time of low oil prices, when many observers felt the […]