Save Bristol Bay Fires Back After Pebble CEO Comments

The following press release is courtesy of Save Bristol Bay: 

Last week Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said we are taking a stand for Bristol Bay “because they don’t have to suffer the backlash from the economic impact of the project being killed because no one gives a rat’s ass what happens in Alaska.”

This says an awful lot more about Tom Collier than it does about anyone fighting for Bristol Bay. Mr. Collier is in this for one reason: if Pebble gets a permit he gets a $12.5 million bonus, according to Pebble’s own SEC filings. That’s it. Then he goes back to DC and never gives another thought to Bristol Bay, or Alaska, or its people.

The thing is, we’ve been here longer than Tom Collier. This coalition includes tribes who have lived in Bristol Bay longer than humans have been recording history. It includes fishermen, lodge owners, guides, and pilots who have made a life and living in Bristol Bay. It includes the 80%+ of Bristol Bay residents who oppose a reckless mine in their home’s headwaters. And it includes people across the country who care deeply about wild salmon and the communities who depend on them.

Ultimately, Tom Collier is lying about you. He’s putting words in your mouth. If you don’t like that, do something about it:

Tell the Army Corps their draft EIS is inadequate and needs to be thrown out.

Tom Collier can toss around all the loose talk he wants, but it doesn’t change the facts. This EIS has huge scientific gaps, and you get to speak up about them. The DEIS fails to address dam failure, doesn’t include an economic analysis, doesn’t examine the viability of the supposedly “small” footprint, and fails to examine impacts outside the physical footprint of the mine. You can speak up about all of that, and you should because Tom Collier is wrong: we care about Alaska and always have.

-Save Bristol Bay

P.S. If you can spare a few bucks to keep us in the fight, it helps. Don’t worry, we won’t spend it on $12.5 million bonuses.