Pebble executives claim Dunleavy as behind-the-scenes partner in permit push

The Dunleavy administration is a strong supporter of the Pebble mine though state officials don’t tend to broadcast that information to the public, the former CEO of Pebble said on the secret tape recordings that led to his removal last week.

Former CEO Tom Collier said as each day passes, “it’s easier politically for the government to be more vocal in its support. They’ve always been supportive kind of behind the scenes but more vocal so this mitigation plan that we’re putting together, almost all of the land is state land.”

The “as each day passes” remark happened before the tapes became a central issue in the U.S. Senate campaign of Sen. Dan Sullivan and challenger Al Gross.

And before Collier lost his job for an impolitic account about the hidden realities of Alaska politics.

On the tapes, Collier referred to Sullivan being quiet in the corner, hoping to ride out the election without saying much. Sullivan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski disputed the Pebble claims, abandoning the inoffensive diplomatic language that they typically employ to keep people happy.

Murkowski didn’t say she was very, very concerned. She told Alaska Public Media she was “absolutely, spitting furious.”

In words that he surely regrets, Ron Thiessen, CEO of Pebble’s parent company, said it is “perfect for permitting” to have silent senators who aren’t causing problems.

Pebble and other companies working to get government approval have many levers to work in private. As Thiessen put it, “You don’t want to be seen to be trying to exercise undue influence.” It’s better to be unseen while exercising undue influence.

One of those levers is the way in which Pebble has worked with Dunleavy, giving him talking points, ghost-writing letters and coaching him. Dunleavy’s support now, according to the Pebble executives, takes the shape of allowing state land to be part of the new mitigation plan that has yet to be released.

The mitigation plan is crucial because it is the official response the company will put forward to the Army Corps of Engineers, trying to overcome objections to the project outlined in this Aug. 20 letter.

The Corps of Engineers said it has “determined that compensatory mitigation is required for unavoidable adverse impacts to aquatic resources from discharges associated with the transportation corridor and the port site. Direct and indirect impacts associated with the transportation corridor and port site total 460 acres of wetlands, 231.7 acres of open waters, and 55.5 miles of streams.”

“There are three approved mechanisms for providing compensatory mitigation, which include mitigation banks, in-lieu fee programs, and permittee-responsible mitigation with preference, in that order,” David Hobbie of the Corps of Engineers wrote.

Thiessen and Collier said Pebble expected the Corps would go along with their revised mitigation plan, which is going to deal with property closer to the mine. Collier said a “dumb press release writer” created a lot of the controversy in news coverage last month.

The mine executives said they knew about the change in June, had teams in the field for six weeks revising the plan and that Dunleavy is on their side.

The changes, according to Thiessen, will “all look good to the courts when the environmentalists sue the Army Corps of Engineers over the permits later this year.”

Of course all of this was before the publicity storm that portrayed Murkowski, Sullivan, Dunleavy and the Corps of Engineers as easily manipulated saps for Pebble.

“So, I’m gonna tell you guys a couple things that are . . . that we’re sharing with our major investors that we don’t want to be completely public at this point. I made a phone call to the guy who runs the permitting process here in Anchorage who has become somewhat of a friend. I’ve known him for 25 years. And said to him, ‘What the hell is going on?’ and he just kinda laughed,” Collier said.

According to Collier, the Dunleavy administration will be the key factor in the success of the mitigation plan. He claimed Dunleavy is agreeable to setting aside state land near the mine for preservation.

The secret recordings give an overview of how exactly the mine and the state plan to respond. Collier said the company believed that if the state sets aside land right next to the mine for preservation, that might do the trick.

“And so, the state has to be a partner with us,” Collier said. “And what we’re gonna do with that land is we’re gonna turn it into a preserve. We're gonna set it aside, put a conservation easement on it.”

At that point, according to the tapes, the actor pretending to be an investor said, “Like a park? Like a big park?”

“Similar to a park,” Collier said. “And that will be available for hunting and fishing only in the State of Alaska.”

The recording appears to have taken place the same day in August that the company received the letter from the Corps of Engineers saying that the Pebble plan to provide environmental rehab efforts at other sites in the region was not sufficient and the “mitigation” had to be closer.

“And we would not be able to respond positively to this letter we got today if the state weren’t there as our partner moving forward with this plan. And they are, ok? And just to put a fine, fine note on that, just between us guys.”

“I had a two-hour one-on-one meeting with the governor when all of this came up about a month ago to walk him through this, to get his commitment that they would be there,” Collier said in August.

“And now we’re working with his Department of Natural Resources and they are being very cooperative in working this through with us.”

In this press release, in which Pebble claimed that the August letter from the Corps was no big deal, the company didn’t mention Dunleavy and his central role in preparing the Pebble response for the federal agency and the designation of state lands.

Much of the news coverage of the August letter from the Corps made little mention of a Pebble deal with Dunleavy on other state lands. The best analysis appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, which included comments about the Koktuli watershed from Bob Loeffler, a former state natural resources official.

Loeffler described a possibility that sounds like what Collier revealed on the secret tapes. He said, “Pebble is left with the requirement to work with the only landowner in the watershed: the state. It may be forced to propose to remove certain state lands from the potential for development.”

Loeffler said a public process is required under the Alaska Constitution before the state could sell development rights as part of a mitigation plan. He guessed that a requirement to preserve 10,000 to 20,000 acres is possible. Others suggest the number may be much higher.

I’ll be watching to see if the Corps accepts the mitigation plan and whether that will lead Murkowski and Sullivan to reverse themselves once more—declaring that the problems have been solved and that the mine is acceptable.

Just between us guys, Dunleavy has yet to inform Alaskans about what he is doing as a Pebble partner and what private commitments he has made to the company.

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