Ignorance on Ice
A few weeks ago during a power outage that lasted (for some) several days, meat and fish made round trips from powerless freezers to powered and back again. Pleas from melting vacuum-sealed salmon, halibut, moose and caribou could almost be heard across the Anchorage Bowl, “We’re melting. We need a live freezer — STAT!” This is the time of year when many Alaskans count their bags of berries, jars of salmon and packs of moose sausage. If you’re a subsistence user, there’s a feeling of accomplishment knowing you hunted or gathered to take care of your family. Going to Costco…
Bell’s Firm Got $1 Million+ from BP
Well, well, well. Ask not for whom Mr. Bell shills – he shills for BP. We practically needed the jaws of life to pry the truth out of candidate Bob Bell, but it has finally been liberated from the mangled wreck of his financial “disclosure” forms. If you remember from the other day, Mr. Bell decided first that he didn’t want to tell us who gave his engineering firm money. Then APOC told him he had to not only disclose who, but how much. Then he disclosed who, but NOT how much. Apparently it became more uncomfortable for Mr. Bell…
Hundreds Turn Out for “It’s Our Oil” Rally
Almost 200 people turned out in Anchorage, and also a great crowd in Fairbanks for the “It’s Our Oil” rally on Saturday. These folks speak for Alaskans who are sick of getting ripped off at the pump, and are sick of being told that it will take a $20 BILLION giveaway to oil companies in order to get more oil in the pipeline. Alaskans who are tired of hearing politicians from both sides of the aisle in the pocket of Big Oil trying to sell the same song and dance every year without requiring increased production. Oil companies make hundreds…
A Tale With Backbone
It’s story time! I know we haven’t had Mudflats story time in a long while now, but things get busy, and life gets complicated, and sometimes we forget. But right now, it’s time to snuggle in, because I’m going to tell you an important story – a story with heroes, and villains, and big dreams, and treasure. Lots and lots of treasure. It’s a story that started a long time ago, and it’s also a story that has no ending yet, because the ending hasn’t been written. It’s going to be up to all of you to decide how it…
Alaska’s Relationship of Convenience with EPA
Ever had a boss so hard to read you didn’t know if you were going to be fired or promoted? Mixed messages on a daily basis? It’s horrible. How are you supposed know what to do? A relationship in which you don’t know if you’ll be hit or hugged is much worse. “Can’t you just be a jerk all the time? It would make things so much easier.” It’s the back and forth, the uncertainty that make these situations unbearable. That’s why I feel bad for the folks at the Environmental Protection Agency. Oh, before you start calling me a…
Happy Walter J. Hickel Day of the Arctic!
“All of us own the seas in common. We own the air and space. If we can learn to use these resources productively for the benefit of all, not just for a few powerful groups or a handful of corporations, the world would stand today on the threshold of wealth and social advancement we cannot yet imagine.” —Former Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel On the day I was born, Wally Hickel was the Republican Governor of Alaska. On the day I moved to Alaska, Wally Hickel was the governor of Alaska for the second time, having run successfully as an Alaskan…
Foreign Interests Attack Alaska’s Voice
Here it comes. We knew it would happen. Because it always does. This time, the Alaska citizens’ initiative that’s in the cross-hairs of multinational corporations is the August 28th Ballot Prop #2, which would bring back Alaskans’ ability to have input into decisions made regarding management of our coastline. Local input. Kind of a no-brainer. Coastal Zone management worked fine for decades, but recently the Parnell administration and big moneyed interests let it go… Now, we have no say, even though we have more coastline than the rest of the nation combined. It’s all up to the feds. Makes no…
Pebble Mine and History
Butte, Montana has a couple of distinguishing claims to fame; one controversial, the other, not so much. What is controversial is that Butte boasts to being the headwaters of the Columbia River. The Canadians and Wikipedia would sharply disagree, but state and federal government and non-profit websites point to Silver Bow Creek in Butte as the headwaters to the Clark Fork River, a “major headwaters stream” of the Columbia River. Anyone who knows rivers knows that if you start with forks, you end up with the main body of the river sometime downhill. If you trace the Columbia River upstream from the Pacific Coast, you will…
Alaska for Sale
~State Senator Lesil McGuire You know how some things that are technically legal still smell funny? Well, there’s something in the air right now. This week, Sen. Lesil McGuire glowed as she introduced the newly formed “magical challenger slush fund” for Gov. Sean Parnell at the Petroleum Club. Her word-salad about being a backbone herself for the Republican Party, and the Senate bipartisan working group needing more GOP in it, was, well, Palinesque. As someone who supports the “grown-ups” in Juneau, it was disappointing to see Sen. McGuire show up with her hand out to a governor whose oil tax…
The Wrath of Captain Zero
Well, somebody’s still mad. After he didn’t get his way during the legislative session, he broke his crayons and went home. After Governor Sean Parnell’s embarrassingly botched special session that cost Alaskans upwards of $30,000 a day, in which his woefully underprepared administration tried in vain to get the Alaska Senate to green light his second $2 billion dollar a year, no-strings-attached, prezzie to the oil companies, he’s now got another plan. Revenge. It didn’t register with the governor that Alaskans actually didn’t like his oil tax plan. They didn’t like the idea of moving $10 billion over the next…