Al Gross who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Alaska in the recent 2020 election is proposing a land swap for offshore rights to break the decade’s long cycle of Pebble litigation.
To resolve this conflict, I propose that Gov. Dunleavy works with our federal delegation and the Biden administration, to swap the state-owned Bristol Bay lands in question back to the federal government. In return, I propose that Alaska be awarded jurisdiction and state ownership out to 12 nautical miles from shore throughout our coastline. This would be an increase from our current jurisdiction of just the first three miles from shore. There would be a number of benefits to the state through this arrangement. It would eliminate Alaska’s conflict over its “fiduciary responsibility” to mine its Bristol Bay lands. Federal ownership and protection of this land would provide a better long-term solution to this environmental conflict compared to the current approach of trying to invoke section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act to block Pebble.
LINK (via: Anchorage Daily News)
