Letters to the Editor

Letter: We deserve better than the Pebble Project

As an educator, my job is to support our future generations. This means teaching them the skills they need to be successful, contributing members of our community, as well as fighting to make sure our beautiful state of Alaska will contribute back to them.Future generations of Alaskans deserve to have Bristol Bay. They deserve legendary salmon runs that return forever and can sustain their cultures and provide for their families. They deserve to have a thriving wild king salmon fishery — right now the only one in the world is in Bristol Bay. They deserve to have access to the more than 14,000 jobs and an economy valued at $1.5 billion each year.

All of this could be decimated by the proposed Pebble mine, where a foreign mining company that does not care about Alaska is jeopardizing a self-sustaining salmon economy. Our future generations deserve far better than that!Perhaps some simple elementary math will help steer our decision-makers’ actions on this: 14,000 jobs plus $1.5 billion in economic contributions annually, plus more than 60 million sockeye salmon, equals Bristol Bay’s thriving salmon economy, which can sustain our state, cultures and families forever. Choosing 2,000 jobs for 20 years for the benefit of a foreign mining company over that would equal a bad deal for all Alaskans.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Rep. Don Young and Gov. Mike Dunleavy, it is your job to represent the Alaska, not look out for foreign profits. I urge you to choose your constituents and the future generations of Alaskans over short-term gains for a foreign mining company.

— Shauna Booton

Anchorage

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