Pebble Mine leaders dig themselves into a world-class hole
The executives of the Pebble Mine project are probably in the mea culpa mode right about now, down on their knees telling Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the leaders of the Alaska Republican Party that they didn’t really mean all of that stuff they said on secret tape recordings released by an environmental group.
Tom Collier, CEO of the Pebble Partnership, and Ron Thiessen, CEO of Northern Dynasty created a host of new political problems for themselves in Alaska and in Washington, D.C. with the comments secretly recorded by people pretending to be investors.
Expect some serious damage control.
The group says it followed the law in making the tapes. Pretending to be investors is not ethical, but it may be legal. A spokesman for Pebble told the Anchorage Daily News the company was investigating the legality of the “despicable and abusive tactic.”
It appears from some of the recorded comments that Collier and Thiessen thought they were talking to people who didn’t know anything about Alaska politics. What we don’t know is how these tapes were edited, whether anything is missing and what questions, leading or otherwise, were used to set up these responses.
Collier and Thiessen’s comments are going to seriously embarrass Murkowski, Sullivan, Dunleavy and other key Alaska Republicans, which is why the mine promoters and their employees are going to do a lot of apologizing.
They said things that many people believe in Alaska about Murkowski, Sullivan and Dunleavy, but don’t say in public unless it happens to take place in the form of a political attack. It’s not the kind of stuff you say about politicians you need help from.
They portrayed the senators and governor as more supportive of Pebble in private than they are in public, a claim that will put the elected officials, especially Sullivan and Murkowski, on the defensive from here on.
They said Murkowski may make comments raising questions about Pebble but she never votes in a way that damages the project. Since Trump dislikes her, comments she makes against Pebble don’t hurt the project much on a federal level.
“The way that Sen. Murkowski has done that is that when she’s asked a question she says things that don’t sound supportive of Pebble, OK?” Collier said in one call. “But when it comes time to vote, when it comes time to do something, she never does anything to hurt Pebble. OK? Never.”
The most damaging political claim on the tapes is that the Pebble execs say the senators misinterpreted recent actions of the Trump administration and are embarrassed to admit they were wrong, so they have been silent.
Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News she is not embarrassed, she was not wrong and that she is not staying quiet in a corner.
Sullivan, running against Al Gross for the Senate, won’t speak out against the mine, but he may say that the federal government should delay the record of decision until after the election, Thiessen said.
Collier claimed that both Murkowski and Sullivan relied on a news account that the Trump administration had delayed the project when they made statements about the move.
“They were wrong. They’re now embarrassed. Since it’s the political season they’re still trying to figure out what the hell they’re gonna do, but an interesting sideline of that – and I wish I could have thought about this – but it’s kind of frozen them. They haven’t been able to say anything about Pebble since then because if they come out and say something, they’re gonna have to admit that they were wrong about what they did,” Collier said.
“So right now they’re just kind of sitting over in a corner and being quiet, ok? And that’s – if they stay there,” said Collier, who was interrupted by Thiessen, who said, “Perfect for permitting.”
“If it’s just – gosh, it couldn’t be a better thing for us because these guys they can’t cause us a problem,” Collier said. “This is not a process that involves US senators. So we get to our ROD, (record of decision) whatever their position is, but if they’re not making bad news stories for us if they’re quiet. So right now it’s not such a bad situation for us. They’re both in a corner being quiet.”
Collier said the hope is that Sullivan is “gonna try to ride out the election and remain quiet.”
He said that is an exaggeration and the company has a good working relationship with Renee Reeve, Sullivan’s state director, and that former Pebble boss John Shively rents an apartment from her.
“We have a very close relationship with one of his top advisors who in fact—our—the guy who was my predecessor, John Shively, rents an apartment in Alaska from his, from Sullivan’s state director. And the two of them have worked together for 20 years so John knows her well and talks to her regularly. And she’s embarrassed that the senator got out there with the wrong message. But right now, John—who keeps informed with her, who keeps in touch with her—has been told that he’s just gonna be quiet. He’s gonna try to ride out the election and remain quiet.”
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