Under Secretary of the Interior—and Elizabeth Windsor impersonator—Ryan Zinke and his faithful compadre at EPA, Scott (Sky King) Pruitt, have ensured it's open season on whatever can be pumped or dug out of the earth at a profit. There are two stories in two different states that are illustrative of what that means. God help the salmon, and the rest of us, too.
First, in Wisconsin, the state legislature, which is chock-full of extraction industry sublets, is about to pass something called the Industrial Acid Mining Bill, which is every bit as horrible as its name implies. This bill would effectively eliminate Wisconsin's beloved "Prove It First" law by which companies wishing to open mines in Wisconsin have to demonstrate that they've managed to open and close a sulfide mine for 10 years without leaching acid into the groundwater and surface water. The new bill—sponsored by, I swear to god, a state legislator named Tom Tiffany—would do away with Prove It First.
The state's environmentalists oppose this bill, and so do several sportsmen's organizations, and, it would appear, the public at large isn't wild about it, either. Not that those considerations have meant much since the arrival in Madison of Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage this particular midwest subsidiary, and the subsequent fire sale Walker declared on the state's wilderness areas.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, the change in administrations in Washington had a more direct impact. In 2014, the EPA, which was still under the management of people who believe that the mission of an environmental protection administration is to, you know, protect the environment, virtually stopped the construction of the Pebble Mine. There have been several hearings over the past few weeks and all indications are that the EPA will soon get out of the way and let the project move forward.
The Pebble Mine is an environmental disaster in waiting. It is a massive gold and copper mine hard by the world's greatest salmon fishery. 60 million salmon a month run through Bristol Bay, and the salmon caught there represent half of the salmon eaten in the world last year. There is so much salmon in and around the bay that humans and bears can catch their respective limits and not get in each other's way. And, for centuries, the bay has been a reliable source of food for the local native peoples, who also have lined up against the mine. The problem is that the gold beneath the earth at the head of Bristol Bay is buried with millions of tons of sulphur. Mix sulphur, air, and water and you get acid, which does not mix well with salmon at all.
In both cases, there are the usual promises and reassurances from the respective mining companies. Now, though, these are being taken very seriously by the EPA, which is more skeptical of the interest of the salmon than it is of the good faith of the mining companies. Of course, Hillary Rodham Clinton once said something nice about fracking, so it all balances out. My thoughts and prayers go out to the salmon.
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Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.
