Following was a posted opinion from the Prospector on Mining.com,
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Prospector • a day ago
The operatives within the EPA have made a stupid mistake, by drafting a report based on a fantasy mine, designed to fail and intended to scare the public into supporting denial of lawful due process to Pebble. All Pebble needs to do is draft a response saying, in effect "That is not the plan that we would submit. We will design a mine that we believe will succeed. Not one that we know would fail." The operatives within EPA played a fool's hand. They are not smart enough to know this.
Further, EPA is forcing the State of Alaska to defend the owner of the mineral rights. These are state lands, open for mineral entry. The mining claims are legal and conform to state mining statute. It is a very small leap to legally and logically conclude that the presumption that mining would take place on a lawful mining claim is valid. The EPA is circumventing the promises made to Alaska under ANILCA. It's too late for them to attempt to pre-empt development of state lands, especially in a quasi-legal manner.
Lastly, the State of Alaska has been collecting claim rents and requiring annual labor to be performed on the claims in order for the claim owners to maintain their right to mineral extraction. The claim owners had a reasonable expectation that if they located an economic ore deposit and that if they followed the law and did everything the right way, they would be able to mine it, subject to due process. For the State of Alaska to allow the EPA to extinguish those mineral rights would be a basis for suit against SOA for fraud and un-constitutional (state & federal) taking. Alaska must defend the rights of the mineral location owner against the federal gov't. The EPA has functionally, screwed Alaska and provided Pebble the legal basis for a multi-billion dollar settlement with the state (IOW - our Permanent Fund), if EPA pursues their stupidly, illegal enforcement of bad regulations.
Solution: Prosecute and rid the EPA of the idiots that dreamed up this scheme and conspired with certain NGOs and a particular billionaire (with the fishing lodge on Lake Illiamna) to defraud the public. Then, enforce the law as written, not as fabricated by idiot bureaucrats with an axe to grind.
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