Feds Say the Oil and Gas Industry’s “White Whale” is Endangered
As Thanksgiving approaches, let’s all give a big helping of thanks (and an even bigger ladle of sarcasm gravy) to Sean Parnell for yet again wasting our money. Thanks, governor. Cook Inlet has a problem. It used to have a large, healthy population of beluga whales. The population of about 1,300 animals was large enough, even, to support subsistence hunting. But back in the 80s, something started to happen. The population of these magnificent creatures began to decline. In the early 90s, it was still possible to drive along the scenic Seward highway, south of Anchorage and spot what at…
Rep. Don Young Loses it in House Resources Committee Meeting (Video)
Apparently someone put something in Don Young’s oatmeal this week. OK, yes… he’s got something in his oatmeal every week, but this week he got an extra helping. Or perhaps he jus needs a bran muffin instead. Or perhaps the propeller beanie he wore to the Resources hearing a few days ago was a liiiitle too tight. Whatever the reason, our “Congressman for All Alaska” was busily at his favorite hobby of seeing how many Alaskans he can get to put bags over their heads. This time, his display came when speaking with Dr. Douglas Brinkley, an “ivory tower elite,”…
Beanied Congressman Don Young Addresses Interior Secretery Salazar
Dear Rest of Nation, You may have many things – cheap airline tickets, world-class museums and symphonies, outlet stores, the vineyards and orchards, good public transportation, five star restaurants, and fabulous architecture. But we have things too, like the best salmon in the world, soaring mountain vistas, drive up coffee stands, downtown moose… And, I feel confident in saying that you do not have a Congressman who wears a propeller beanie while questioning the Secretary of the Interior. And we do. Here is Don Young, “Congressman for All Alaska,” at a Natural Resources hearing in our nation’s capital. He addresses…
Les Gara Stands Up for Alaska’s Salmon – Where is Captain Zero?
“Destroying a wild salmon stream to sell coal to China is about the worst idea in Alaska’s proud history of salmon protection. We’ve always promoted responsible mines. But this one is irresponsible,” said Representative Les Gara, of state plans allowing dredging of eleven miles of the Chuitna River’s tributaries to keep moving forward. We couldn’t agree more. On October 26, Gara wrote to Governor Sean Parnell and Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources Dan Sullivan (no relation to the hinky Mayor) seeking proof of any wild salmon streams that have been so badly dredged, and that have fully recovered. So far……
Open Thread – Pre-dawn Light
This morning, sitting with my cup of coffee, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, the first bit of light over the mountains. Pre-dawn is a beautiful time in the winter. It’s been dark since early evening the previous day, and all of a sudden out of the inky blackness you can barely make out the ridge line of the Chugach Mountains that flank Anchorage to the East. Bit by bit, second by second, things become clear, and the snow takes on the changing colors of dawn. There’s something about this earliest light, especially paired with the snow-insulated…
Vulture’s Picnic – My Home is Now a Strange Place (Installment 4)
Here is the next installment of Greg Palast’s new book Vulture’s Picnic. He has allowed The Mudflats to bring you Chapter 7 – My Home is Now a Strange Place in its entirety. This is an exclusive excerpt, just for Mudflatters. I find it absolutely riveting. If you need to catch up, here are links to the first three installments. Installment 1 Installment 2 Installment 3 ********************************** Chapter 7, continued By Greg Palast STEINHATCHEE, FLORIDA We also needed witnesses. I needed insiders who would spill to outsiders. To find them, I needed a hound dog. I needed a blonde. I…
Party Planner Tries to Crash Alaska’s Filmmaking Party?
When I moved to Alaska more than twenty years ago, I was expecting something like the TV show Northern Exposure. I figured Alaskans would be really happy and proud that the show “put them on the map,” as it were. Invariably, when I mentioned it to anyone who had been in Alaska for a while, I got a big fat eye roll. “Yeah, they film it in Washington. They don’t even film it here. And we don’t have crickets, and we don’t have raccoons, and it doesn’t get dark in June…” They would have a list of all the mistakes…
Open Thread – Cold Drive
It’s been cold. Really cold. All you have to do is look on Facebook, if you’ve got even a few Alaskan friends, and you’ll see that everyone’s been remarking on the weather in one way or another. With much of Southcentral Alaska in single digits during the day, sub-zero at night, and wind chills from -15 to -30, this is serious stuff and why every self-respecting mammal in Alaska (including some humans) has a thick coat of fur. When I pulled out of the heated garage this morning, the thermometer on the dash said 58 degrees. Then I watched as…
Exxon Valdez – The Final Showdown?
~An Exxon Valdez oil-filled footprint on a beach in Prince William Sound, known as “The Death Marsh” and “Diesel Beach.” Taken July 4, 2010 – twenty-one years after the spill. (photo by Jeanne Devon) By Prof. Rick Steiner In what could be the final court showdown regarding environmental damage from the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, tomorrow (1:30 PM, Tuesday Nov. 15, 2011) the U.S. District Court in Anchorage will hear oral arguments regarding the final payment from Exxon for long-term environmental injuries from the spill. The present Court proceedings were triggered initially by my 12/7/10 amicus motion, then the…