New Oil Rigs Shipped to Alaska Cause Pants to Ignite!
~Shiny new oil rigs bound for Prudhoe Bay, Alaska If you listen to the oil companies, their lobbyists, and the cadre of legislators and elected officials they’ve purchased over the years, you’d think it’s the end of the world. They run in circles, hair on fire, rending garments, pounding their own foreheads with their palms and wailing, “Nobody wants to invest in Alaska anymore! It’s too hard! We’re too regressive! The poor oil companies can’t make a living! They’re going to go somewhere else if we don’t give them everything they want! Aaaaaaaa!” It’s an ugly sight. First, of course,…
Oyster Roundup – On Inbreeding, Moose Cheese, and GOP Muppets
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Brilliant Public Relations from the Coal Industry So, a study comes out that was done in coal mining areas in West Virginia, where mountaintop removal threatens the health of residents, devastates ecosystems and leaves the “Mountain State” far less mountainous than it once was. The study says that women who live in coal mining areas have a greater risk of having children with birth defects. But industry lawyers say that it may not be the toxins associated with coal mining, it may be the INBREEDING. Wow….
The Pipe and the Pump – The Price We Pay
By Rep. Les Gara Do you want to be bound, by contract, to pay natural gas prices that are double what is paid in the Lower 48 – for the next 20 or 30 years? How’s that for attracting business to Alaska? How’s that for your pocketbook? The folks who held the press conference on Tuesday didn’t mention any of that, did they? Unfortunately, the gasline debate has devolved into competing sound bites. Those pushing the project want you to think the lights will go out tomorrow if you don’t do what they propose. It’s bad policy to scare people…
Open Thread – Coal Country
Here’s one not to miss if you are in town. The Mat Valley Coalition is having a free screening of “Coal Country,” a film about the effects of coal mining on communities and property values. This is an issue vital to Alaskans and those in other coal-bearing states. A recent victory in Chickaloon should not lull us into complacency. The specter of the development of the Chuitna Coal Project looms over Anchorage. Even scarier than those Russians rearing their heads. ~A River near the proposed site of the Chuitna Coal Mine
Palin’s Remarks After Iowa Premiere (Transcript of Word Salad)
Time to get the giant Caesar-sized bowl and the double Costco bag of Crazy Croutons. Sarah Palin delivered a monstrous serving of word salad after the Iowa premiere of “The Undefeated.” It appears that the potential presidential candidate was unconcerned with having prepared remarks of any kind, and simply let all those buzz words out of her head, in no particular order. The full transcript of the video is below. My favorite part is when she explains that we don’t need foreign countries because God gave us the oil and the gas and the coal and we can be totally…
EPA v. Polluters – Senators Begich & Murkowski on the Wrong Side
Alaskans have a (how shall I put this) prickly relationship with the EPA for the most part. You can live most anywhere in the lower 48, and chances are you’ve never had to personally interact with the EPA and don’t know anyone who has. You live in your house, you do your thing, and the only time it comes up is when you hear the Tea Party talk about how all them damn regulations keep mucking things up and killing business and jobs. But in Alaska, the EPA and its involvement in development both big and small seems to…
Open Thread – No Pebble Mine
This picture is good for the heart in so many ways. For more information on the proposed Pebble Mine project, go to savebristolbay.org Photo of fresh Bristol Bay King Salmon by Jon Corbett
A Belated Apocalyptic Legislative Wrap-Up from Les Gara
Well, it seems like the only thing that got raptured yesterday was the internet service at Mudflats Central. It gave me a day off the grid, but it also meant that the Pre-Apocalyptic newsletter that I was going to post from our friend Rep. Les Gara is now a little past its apocalyptic prime… But the information is still important and very relevent, so we’ll just go with the irony of my raptured online service, and enjoy it anyway. My theory is that the rapture actually did happen, but nobody was eligible. Carry on. ************************************************* By Rep. Les Gara You…
The Real Tragedy of Sarah Palin
This piece is cross-posted at The Huffington Post – HERE. From the moment Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech electrified the Republican convention, she was seen as an unbending, hard-charging, red-meat ideologue—to which soon was added “thin-skinned” and “vindictive.” But a look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska—the only record she has—shows a very different politician: one who worked with Democrats to tame Big Oil and solve the great problem at the heart of the state’s politics. That Sarah Palin might have set the nation on a different course. What went wrong? This is the intriguing premise set forth…