The Legislature planned to put on a conference on the Endangered Species Act and use the findings in a public relations campaign. The campaign would be aimed at creating a "grass-roots" call for limits on the Endangered Species Act, including how it's applied to Alaska's polar bears and beluga whales.
Lawmakers who favored the conference said the federal designation of polar bears as threatened and Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered could lead to economic damage in the state. But enthusiasm for the effort fizzled over the last several weeks, legislators said, with some saying it could create a black eye for Alaska if it came across as though politicians were directing the science.
The Legislature's lawyers opined that legislators don't have authority to wage a national public relations campaign anyway, only the governor does. "That could be disputed. But it got members of the Legislature a little shaky in the knees," said Rep. John Harris, a Valdez Republican.
The endangered species act campaign was a project of the Legislative Council, a panel of 14 state representatives and senators who handle administrative business of the Legislature. The council has the power to pull the plug on it, although the finance committees will have to sign off on using the money for anything else than the public relations effort it was budgeted for.
Dillingham Rep. Bryce Edgmon and Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski want the Legislative Council to use the $1.5 million for an independent study of the environmental and social consequences of developing the massive Pebble gold and copper deposit. The study would evaluate if the state has enough environmental and permit standards in place.
"The size of this mine is unprecedented, and the risks of mining copper from a sulfide ore body in the headwaters of two of Bristol Bay's most productive salmon and trout watersheds are astronomical," the legislators wrote.
Harris, the legislative council chairman, said Monday he's pretty sure lawmakers will ditch the public relations campaign. But he said the money will likely be diverted to help remodel the Chevron building in downtown Anchorage, if Chevron accepts the state's bid to buy the building.
Chevron is to say this week if the bid is accepted. The 41-year-old building has asbestos problems, and lawmakers expect to completely gut it for an estimated $16 million. They want to turn it into legislative offices.
The $1.5 million for the endangered species act campaign could be freed up if Chevron rejects the bid, Harris said. The finance committees would decide how to re-appropriate the money budgeted for the PR campaign. They could use it for the Pebble Mine study or something else entirely, Harris said.
"If the Legislature wants to do it, I don't have any problem with supporting (the study)," Harris said.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries asked for the study, and Harris said Pebble developers have also weighed in, saying they won't oppose it as long as they don't have to pay for the study.
The Pebble study has an influential advocate in Anchorage Republican Rep. Mike Hawker. The finance committee co-chairman said he thinks it would be useful to have a credible and objective third-party review of the project. But he said he's not sure whether enough of his colleagues think it's a priority.
Gov. Sean Parnell has said that he's not sure it's necessary to go outside state agencies and pay for an independent review.
Kodiak Republican Rep. Alan Austerman introduced a resolution almost a year ago directing the Legislature to fund such a study. But the resolution has failed to pass a single committee, and there are only two weeks before the Legislature adjourns for the year.
Read more from Juneau by Sean Cockerham on our Alaska Politics blog: adn.com/alaskapolitics.
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