Many friends of
"Alaska's Diplomat", Chuck Becker, have commented on the important life he led, including his energy industry understanding.  (Note: we will remove or edit any comments at the request of commenters.  -dh)

Canada's Fraser Institute analyzes how US loss of freedom affects economic recovery…and wonders how Alberta's new government will affect energy industry vitality.

 EPA's Pebble Blame Game

Wall Street Journal
(Write "Pebble" and/or "Federal Overreach" and/or "Rule of Law" in our NGP Google search engine, upper right.  You will find our many references, like this one, to the Pebble project.  We are grateful to the Wall Street Journal and Ms. Strassel for these excerpts and for airing this matter so well in today's issue.  We also appreciate alert readers like Dan Kish in Washington D.C. for alerting us first thing.  -dh)

By 

KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

May 21, 2015 7:24 p.m. ET

Government agencies have a certain descending order of excuses….  (Subscribe and read full WSJ article here.)

The EPA has a problem: its pre-emptive veto of the Pebble Mine, a proposed project in southwest Alaska. The law says that Pebble gets to apply for permits, and the Army Corps of Engineers gets to give thumbs up or down. The EPA, a law unto itself, instead last year blocked the proposal before applications were even filed. The agency claims …. (More….)

This column reported a week ago on EPA documents that tell a very different story. They reveal the existence of an internal EPA “options paper” that make clear the agency opposed the mine on ideological grounds and had already decided to veto it in the spring of 2010—well before it did any “science.” Emails showed an EPA biologist, Phil North…, (More….)

None of this looks good, and in a nearby letter EPA Region 10 Administrator Dennis McLerran is already bringing up semantics. According to the EPA—and other environmental groups now picking up the same line—the agency didn’t “veto” the project, but ….

In a conversation with me last week, Mr. McLerran also turned to the “underlings did it” excuse. Asked about the options paper ….  It is a preliminary document, done by lower level staff.”

On June 7, 2010, Michael Szerlog, manager in the EPA region’s aquatics resources unit…. The message mentions Mr. McLerran….  (More….)

On June 15, Kendra Tyler, special assistant in Mr. McLerran’s office, wrote to EPA staff: “I know that Dennis would like a briefing on the options paper soon . . .” On June 30, Mr. North emailed colleagues to explain that: “The only time the RA

[Regional Administrator] is available to discuss the options paper before he visits Bristol Bay is Thursday . . . ” Later that day, Matthew Magorrian, also in the regional office, told a big group of EPA employees that “DM already has draft of options paper.”

…the list of EPA employees who make up the core group discussing the options paper are not a bunch of low-level chemists and permit writers. …Mike Bussell, then the director of the EPA’s Office of Water and Watersheds in Seattle; David Allnutt, then acting regional counsel; Linda Anderson-Carnahan, then acting associate director of environmental cleanup; Tami Fordham, then policy adviser. Mr. McLerran says no “key decision makers” saw the options paper. … (More….)

Several of those included in these email chains would go on to take active roles in performing the EPA’s “watershed assessment” of the mine project. Ms. Fordham is listed as a contributor, as is an EPA officer named Richard Parkin. … Mr. McLerran says “key decision makers” decided to perform three years of “science” on Pebble. But it turns out those doing the science were those who had already decided to block the mine.

The EPA offered this statement on Thursday: “It is a normal part of EPA’s deliberative decision making….” (More….)

The EPA is worried because it is getting blowback that goes beyond public disapproval of its abuse of power. In November a court ordered ….  The agency is right to be worried; its Pebble veto is a scandal.  (More….)

Fraser Institute lends understanding to Canadian and US economies and energy industries.  Here are recent reports:

 

Here is how we memorialized the passing yesterday morning of our great friend, Chuck Becker.  Because of his work ethic, kindness, patience, diligence and patriotic labor in support of Alaska and the nation, we discovered the breadth and depth of the public comments made on various web pages.  We are delighted to assemble these for the convenience of friends and family so that they might live on in our Northern Gas Pipeline archives: