Why NANA is fighting back against Ballot Measure 4
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In the battle for the hearts, minds and votes of Alaskans, the real story of Ballot Measure 4 is the mob like threats and shadowy financing being used by the proponents of the measure.
Ballot Measure 4, which will appear on the August 26 primary ballot, is a pre-emptive strike by opponents of the Pebble Mine. A mine which hasn't even been proposed yet. The problem is the initiative doesn't just prematurely toss the baby out with the bathwater...it throws out the entire bathroom.
The behind the scenes political battles that have been hidden to the public have been nothing short of epic.
In a gathering of executives earlier this year, NANA President Marie Greene was asked by a colleague why she would put a bull's eye on her back by wading into the contentious advertising fight over Ballot Measure 4; the so called clean water initiative.
"If we don't stand up for ourselves, who will stand up for us?" Greene responded.
Considering the significant negative economic impacts that could occur if Ballot Measure 4 passes, Greene's response wasn't a surprise; but the question of why she would stand and fight this ill-conceived ballot measure sure was.
It highlights just how little people understand what is really at stake in this battle.
When you consider the threats and attacks that NANA has endured from Ballot Measure 4 organizers who are basically the emissaries of a wealthy self serving lodge owner, it's impossible not to look at Marie Greene as the kind of leader you'd want fighting for your economic future.
The Economics
NANA currently operates the Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska with their partner Tek-Cominco. In 2007 mining revenues topped $58 million dollars. Sixty two percent of NANA's profits are distributed to other Native Corporations through the 7-I provision.
The mine currently employees 465 full time employees with an annual payroll of $48 million with almost 56% of those employees being NANA shareholders from a region that is beset with high unemployment and a lack of good job opportunities.
This is money that goes directly into the hands of Native shareholders and comes back in the form of money for schools and local community support. And not just in rural Alaska. The economic benefits are spread statewide.
The Red Dog Mine uses the services of over 350 Alaskan companies every year from catering and engineering to environmental research. Between 1989 and 2007, Red Dog has paid over $150 million in salaries to Anchorage residents and $60 million to those living in the Mat-Su Valley.
Over the last twenty years, NANA has built an entire suite of supply companies that have provided services not only to the mine but to other industries in Alaska. This vertical integration has provided additional benefits to Alaska's economy by creating economic opportunities and good paying jobs.
Ballot Measure 4 puts this all at risk.
The Social Benefits
In an area that has been beset by chronic under employment, the mine has provided a guiding light for young Alaskans growing up in rural Alaska.
Schools have begun tailoring their curriculum to prepare students for opportunities in the mining industries. The mine itself has provided countless jobs for local residents who now feel a sense of pride and accomplishment of being gainfully employed and future opportunities are critical to the attempt to grow a more healthier socio-economic climate in rural Alaska.
The future holds great promise for the Red Dog area. Projections show that between now and 2031, the mine and associated claims could generate $6.5 billion in revenue to NANA, which almost $4 billion of that would be distributed amongst their fellow Native Corporations.
Ballot Measure 4 puts this all at risk.
The truth about the environmentThe Red Dog Mine operates under the most stringent environmental requirements anywhere. In fact, Alaska is the only state where fisheries get constitutional protections in the state's constitution.
The water quality downstream from Red Dog is now better than it was before mining. Annual studies of the drainages below Red Dog show healthy and robust fish populations.
Numerous studies and sampling efforts show that Kivalina’s drinking water downstream from Red Dog meets stringent State of Alaska drinking water standards.
http://www.habitat.adfg.alaska.gov/reddog.php
The threats, The mob style tactics
This unpleasant journey all began when Ballot Measure 4 proponents, which have been bankrolled by a wealthy lodge owner named Bob Gillam, sent emissaries to Vancouver to meet with Tek Cominco executives about the Ballot Measure.
These emissaries were akin to mob henchmen.
Their message was simple; join us in opposing Pebble Mine or we will come after you...we will bring the mining industry to it's knees. Tek Comincio and NANA refused to back down.
Then came the meeting at NANA, where proponents of Ballot Measure 4 again threatened the corporation's executives to pull their television ads, which simply talked about the value of Red Dog mine, or they would attack the Red Dog mine.
NANA refused and shortly thereafter, the Ballot Measure 4 group started running ads calling Red Dog mine the largest polluter in Alaska. But those ads weren't truthful as they failed to explain just how that classification was arrived upon by environmental agencies.
Then the Ballot Measure 4 proponents came back again, and promised if NANA would back off, they'd have lawmakers adopt an amendment to HB134, (a bill that mirrored the ballot measure) that would grant NANA an exemption for the Red Dog mine. But again, NANA said no and they refused to sell out their fellow mining industry colleagues to protect their own interest.
These Corleone type offers that NANA couldn't refuse but yet did, raise serious questions about the integrity of this whole group.
First, how could the Ballot 4 people promise to have legislators amend the mining bill on behalf of NANA? How were the proponents of Ballot Measure 4 going to make this amendment happen; through Bob Gillam's high priced lobbyist?
Second, if the Red Dog mine was such a serious polluter as the organizers of Ballot Measure 4 have claimed in their attack ads, why would they offer them an exemption?
Either their claims about Red Dog being a dangerous polluter were lies or these folks have less than pure motives.
This ladies and gentlemen gets us to the point; Ballot Measure 4 isn't about good public policy, it's about personal politics and the wishes of a wealthy lodge owner who doesn't give a damn if he wrecks the mining industry in his pursuit to stop the Pebble Mine.
This is the same gentlemen who six years ago bankrolled an advertising campaign attacking lawmakers who were working on a long range fiscal plan to solve the state's budget deficit, claiming the plan would harm the economy. Today, he is trying to protect his private luxury lodge at the expensive of the economy by putting high paying mining jobs at risk.
But the bottom line is that this ballot measure has nothing to do with Pebble Mine. In fact if you read the measure, nowhere in the four pages does the words Pebble Mine or Bristol Bay even appear. In fact one of the organizers told me directly, "that the measure had to be written in vague language."
Vague language?
What are these people thinking?
In fact nobody has any idea just how this measure would impact mining. And what they have claimed the initiative won't do, like impact existing mines, is just plain wrong, especially given their own admission that the measure is "vague".
The supposed grandfather clause is completely fabricated because no mine has every permit granted in perpetuity. Permits expire and must be renewed on a regular basis and this measure creates the environment for changing rules and loop holes which could encourage litigation.
Any planned expansion on existing mines could very well be called a new mine and be subject to an uncertain process. For instance at Red Dog, future development proposals such as Aqqaluk could be thrown into limbo due to the "vague" language in ballot measure 4.
Meanwhile the Ballot Measure 4 proponents continue to rely on miss-information and scare tactics to frighten people into voting for their admittedly "vague" ballot measure.
One of the groups supporting this measure, Americans for job security or AJS has repeatedly ignored requests to identify where all of their money is coming from. This is a group whose corporate address is a mail box at a UPS store outside of Washington D.C.
Here's my guess where their money is coming from; the cash is being funneled through AJS by a wealthy lodge owner.
After all, AJS has traditionally been a Republican attack group that goes after Democratic candidates during elections. You have to ask yourself, why in the world would they be involved in a ballot measure dispute unless someone was bankrolling the campaign.
It is no coincidence that some of the same individuals that are on the board of AJS are the same people involved with the advertising and strategy around Ballot Measure 4. This includes Art Hackney, whose ad agency is handling the ad campaign for Ballot Measure 4 and who is listed as the treasurer for AJS.
In an Anchorage Daily News article on Sunday August 17, reporter Elizabeth Bluemink writes that "Hackney claims he doesn't know the identity of the group's members or its source of money for the Measure 4 fight."
Wait a minute....Hackney is the treasurer of the group but yet he doesn't know where the funding is coming from?
Pebble Mine
While concerns about Pebble Mine are valid and will need to be vetted through the various and extensive levels of regulatory agencies, not to mention the intense public scrutiny, there is no such thing as Pebble Mine today.
There are no Pebble plans, no Pebble permits and nothing established about the scope of the Pebble project. Today it is simply in the exploratory phase.
The reaction by the Ballot Measure 4 proponents is completely premature and in their attempt to stop a project that isn't even a project yet, they are literally adopting a nuclear approach to Alaska's mining industry.
And while Ballot Measure 4 contains absolutely nothing about Pebble Mine in its language, the ad campaigns have focused on making people who have concerns about Pebble Mine falsely believe that by voting yes on 4 that it is the only way they can stop it.
But as we've stated, this Ballot Measure will have tremendous impacts far beyond any potential Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay Region. It will impact potential mines in rural Alaska like Donlin Creek and Rock Creek. It will impact mines in Fairbanks and as far south as Juneau.
In fact it is safe to say that Juneau is no hot bed of pro-development opinion, however even the local city assembly voted to oppose Ballot Measure 4 because the Green's Creek Mine is the largest local taxpayer.
The fact is even if you have concerns about the Pebble Mine, you can still vote no on Ballot Measure 4.
There are other ways to address concerns about a potential Pebble Mine.
Last legislative session there were a few pieces of legislation that would have been far less damaging and more specific than Ballot Measure 4 to address concerns about the Pebble Mine.
Regardless, it still seems dangerously premature to begin harming Alaska's economy and an entire industry with a poorly thought out ballot measure that seeks to defeat a project that hasn't even been proposed yet.
The Ballot Measure 4 proponents are trying to mislead Alaskans into believing that this initiative is needed to protect against Pebble Mine and to protect salmon. Really?
Given the fact that the wording of this initiative doesn't include anything about Pebble Mine and that Alaska's constitution does include specific provisions to protect fisheries, this initiative is nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing that will impact one of Alaska's most important industries in regions far beyond the Bristol Bay watershed.
Regions that depend on mining because there is no commercial fishing industry. Regions where mining is their economic lifeblood. Regions where they desperately need jobs and future economic development.
Ballot Measure 4 puts this all at risk.
That's why NANA's President Marie Greene has no problem standing up and fighting for her shareholders, her fellow Alaska Natives and Alaska's economy.
After all, if Greene doesn't stand up for Alaska's economy who will?
A self serving wealthy lodge owner and a shadowy group of characters with a post office box in Washington D.C.?
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