Alaska Beacon

Developers’ efforts to overturn the cancellation of a vast gold and copper mine planned for southwest Alaska are getting a boost from national mining and pro-business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

On Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, the Chamber and the National Mining Association filed separate friend-of-the-court briefs in the lawsuit brought by the developers of the proposed Pebble Mine against the Environmental Protection Agency, which vetoed the mine.

Neither group has intervened in the case against the EPA, but the briefs represent the groups’ support for the proposed mine and offer legal arguments that Judge Sharon Gleason could consider as she debates whether to move the project forward.

In 2023, the EPA invoked a rarely used “veto” clause of the Clean Water Act to say that there was no way that the proposed Pebble Mine could be developed without significant harm to the environment. The large mineral deposit is located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the most abundant sockeye salmon fishery in the world.

The administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, which supports the project, and the proposed mine’s developers, filed separate lawsuits in federal court to overturn the rejection, as did two Native corporations that work as contractors for the developers. Those cases have since been combined.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case directly, which has left the issue in front of Judge Sharon Gleason in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Another lawsuit filed by the state claims that if the veto is upheld, the federal government will owe Alaska $700 billion, the state’s estimate for the value of the mine if built as planned. That case has been put on hold until the District Court rules.

In July, the administration of President Donald Trump indicated that it might try to settle the suit and withdraw the veto. If that occurs, it could come before Jan. 2, when the EPA is slated to file a written response to the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment.

If the EPA continues to fight the case, the last written arguments are scheduled to be finished by the end of February. Any oral argument would take place afterward.

If the federal government drops the case, it doesn’t mean a free path for Pebble: Several environmental organizations, fishing groups, tribal organizations and Bristol Bay locals have also intervened in the case and intend to fight in court.

The Alaska Legislature is also expected to consider a bill that would block both Pebble and any successor projects that might emerge.

In its brief, the National Mining Association — joined by the American Exploration and Mining Association and the Alaska Miners Association — call the EPA’s veto “overly broad” and say that if it is upheld, the act “will almost certainly chill investment in domestic mining activities” because other proposed mines could also be subject to a veto.

The Chamber of Commerce, which has backed the Pebble Mine project since at least 2022, said that if the veto is upheld, it has the potential of encouraging other vetoes, which would “disrupt important industries in which many of the Chamber’s members participate.”

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has unanimously approved a series of requests for financial secrecy filed by attorneys representing John Malone, the telecom billionaire seeking to take a controlling interest in Alaska’s largest internet firm.

The approval means Malone will not be required to publish his personal finances and that the financial condition of three GCI-related subsidiaries will also remain secret. The finances of GCI Liberty, the parent company, are already public due to required filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In October, Malone, 84, told the Wall Street Journal that he would be stepping away from day-to-day operations of his various companies but would retain his controlling interests. Bloomberg has estimated his net worth to be approximately $10.6 billion.

The approval was published just before 4 p.m. on Black Friday. The five governor-appointed commissioners said they were granting the requests because they were in line with the commission’s prior practices, because they don’t have the power to regulate much of GCI Liberty’s business, and because “the public interest in disclosure of the financial information of (the three subsidiaries) is outweighed by the potential competitive financial disadvantages demonstrated in the petition.”

The chair of GCI’s parent company, GCI Liberty, Malone holds shares controlling 53.5% of GCI Liberty’s voting power. But Malone’s personal power has been restricted until recently to 49.32% of the company’s voting power, regulatory filings state.

Now, Malone is seeking to increase his voting power above 50%.

The commission’s Friday order does not decide that request; it addressed the combined requests for financial secrecy on behalf of Malone and the three GCI Liberty subsidiaries.

Alaskans submitted a combined 67 comments across three dockets related to Malone’s proposal. Almost all were opposed to the request for secrecy.

In a response to those comments, Malone’s attorneys said “no legitimate public interest will be served by requiring (Malone) to file his personal financial information.”

The response also said that “the acquisition … will be seamless and transparent to customers because the GCI companies will continue to provide the same services to Alaska customers under their same experienced management. There will be no operational or management changes to the GCI companies as a result of the acquisition.”

GCI’s attorneys had argued that the financial statements of the three subsidiaries should stay confidential because GCI’s competitors were not required to reveal their finances, and it would be unfair for them to open their books.

“We find that disclosure … might create a competitive or financial disadvantage,” the regulators concluded.

In addition, unlike the way that water and power utilities’ rates are regulated by the RCA, GCI’s prices are not regulated by state law.

For that reason, plus the fact that GCI Liberty’s combined financial statements are publicly available, regulators concluded, “public interest in disclosure … is outweighed by the potential competitive financial disadvantages demonstrated in the petition.”

On the request for secrecy covering Malone himself, Malone’s attorneys argued that he isn’t legally obligated to provide financial support to GCI Liberty, and thus, “requiring the submission of his personal financial information would not advance a public interest objective.”

They also argued that in 2018, when wealthy telecom entrepreneur Jane Eudy obtained full control of several Interior Alaska telecom companies by taking 100% control of American Broadband, a national firm, the RCA did not require her to publicize her finances.

Members of the public argued that disclosure is in the best interests of Alaskans.

Megan Johnson, one of dozens of people who offered public comments, said, “Telecommunications in Alaska are not just about convenience, they are lifelines for education, healthcare, emergency services, and economic development, especially in rural and Indigenous communities. Decisions made by owners unfamiliar with our terrain, seasonal challenges, and cultural values risk undermining the progress we’ve made in closing the digital divide.”

Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs of Juneau wrote, “I am gravely concerned about the idea of concealing financial information, particularly when it comes to consolidating control of a public good like an ISP, broadcast and telecommunications company.”

Commissioners ultimately sided with Malone.

“We find the circumstances presented in these dockets similar to those we considered (in 2018),” they wrote.

“We find that under the circumstances … no legitimate public interest will be served by requiring Dr. Malone to provide a statement of financial condition.”

Commissioners are scheduled to make a final determination on Malone’s takeover by April 1.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed state Reps. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, and Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, to two vacancies in the Alaska Senate.

Each nomination will become effective if at least five of the Senate’s nine other Republicans approve them. Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said the votes will take place by secret ballot at 10 a.m. Saturday in Anchorage.

“Honestly, I think both of them are excellent candidates,” Stevens said on Wednesday, adding that he expects both to be confirmed.

If Rauscher and Tilton are confirmed, their House seats would become vacant, and Dunleavy would be required to appoint replacements within 30 days of their resignations.

The two Senate seats became vacant after Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, resigned to run for lieutenant governor and Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, resigned to run for governor.

Dunleavy’s picks were due no more than 30 days after their resignations, but he acted earlier, which will allow the replacement legislators to take office before the regular legislative session convenes in January.

“I can’t think of two Alaskans more qualified and committed to public service to serve in the Alaska Senate than Representatives Rauscher and Tilton,” Dunleavy said in a statement announcing the selections. “I have known and worked with both for as long as I have been in public office and I look forward to working collaboratively with them as senators. I also want to thank the local Republican district committees for taking the time to meet, deliberate, and send forward names for these seats. This process works best when the people closest to the communities are involved.”

Tilton, first elected to the House in 2014, was Speaker of the House from 2023 through 2024. Reached by phone on Wednesday in the middle of Thanksgiving shopping, she referred to a statement on her Facebook page.

“I look forward to collaborating with my Senate colleagues to advance sensible policy solutions, foster an energy renaissance, and usher in an era of renewed prosperity for all Alaskans,” the statement said in part.

Rauscher said he’s already at work on a letter thanking Dunleavy for his appointment, but he declined to say what he thinks his confirmation chances are.

“It’s an honor,” Rauscher said of the appointment, “and I feel like it was quite the undertaking — the process — and to have it this close to seeing what the final outcome is, is always a relief in some ways, but it’s also very exciting that I am this close. So I appreciate the fact that the governor did consider me and thought highly enough of me to appoint me.”

Several senators said they expect Rauscher and Tilton to be confirmed, but each declined to say how he or she will vote, citing the need to work with them regardless.

Of the nine Republican senators who will be voting on this weekend’s confirmations, five are members of the Senate’s bipartisan majority caucus, and four are members of the Senate’s all-Republican minority.

Shower and Hughes were members of the House minority, and their replacements are expected to be as well.

Stevens said he’s conducting the confirmation vote by secret ballot in order to avoid the possibility of hurt feelings.

“I don’t want to have anybody have bad feelings when we start working together in January,” he said.

Stevens said he wants to give the House’s replacement process as much time as possible, since that will involve the appointment of two people new to the Legislature who will need to hire staff and uproot their lives in order to arrive in Juneau in January and be ready to work.

“I just want to make sure the House has all the time they need,” he said.

Officials with the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management announced a reduction of some state emergency response operations on Friday, and a transition from a response to a recovery phase following the Western Alaska storms as winter sets in.

Emergency personnel with the Alaska Organized Militia, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Prevention and veteran-led volunteer organization Team Rubicon are ending their missions and departing the region this week. Their work for the season should be complete by Nov. 26, according to a division update.

“Some aspects of the recovery operation might look different, but the support for impacted individuals and communities will continue,” said Bryan Fisher, director of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in a prepared statement.

He thanked the disaster crews for their service. “The work to get emergency repair personnel, supplies, and equipment to communities and repair homes has been nothing short of amazing,” he said.

The reduction in personnel was expected as winter weather and freezing temperatures set in, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the State Emergency Operations Center, which is coordinating state, federal, tribal and local partners in the storm disaster response effort.

“We knew when this disaster happened, back on October 8, that we didn’t have a lot of time before winter was going to set in,” Zidek said on Monday. “Here in Alaska, we have two seasons: we have winter and we have construction season. And the ability to work during the winter in these far flung areas that are experiencing below freezing temperatures is very challenging.”

“So we knew this time would come where we would have to kind of cease some of this emergency response work,” he added. “And really focus on supporting the people that couldn’t return home, and making a plan, longer term, to make repairs when conditions are more favorable.”

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities will continue to work on critical infrastructure projects, Zidek said, as well as coordinate with local residents in impacted communities and regional partners like the Association of Village Council Presidents, the tribal coalition leading storm response efforts on the west coast, to continue work in villages as weather allows.

“A lot of work is still going to continue, particularly on infrastructure,” he said. “And there are going to be local crews that can take better advantage of weather windows, both within communities and out of Bethel. But for the most part, we’re going to focus on repairing critical infrastructure and providing services to people that have been displaced.”

The devastating October storms in Western Alaska prompted the largest emergency disaster response in state history. The remnants of Typhoon Halong killed one person, impacted more than 50 communities, destroyed over 200 homes, damaged thousands of structures, and displaced an estimated 1,600 residents across the state, according to local reporting from KYUK.

Zidek emphasized that communities were impacted at different degrees, and the coordinated response from a wide variety of federal, state, tribal and community organization partners will continue to support communities as needed.

Since the Trump administration approved a federal disaster declaration on Oct 22, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed $17.9 million in assistance, under its individual and household assistance programs, as of Sunday, an agency spokesperson, Alberto Pilot said by email on Monday.

Pilot said the federal agency has dispersed over $172,000 in housing assistance funds and $17.7 million in “other needs” assistance, which can include disaster unemployment assistance, legal services and crisis counseling. FEMA has also dispersed over $1 million to the state for “expedited public assistance,” he said.

The Dunleavy administration has requested a 100 percent cost share covered by FEMA for the storm disaster, but that request is “currently under review,” a FEMA spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

Zidek noted that the state has paused its distribution of disaster assistance to allow FEMA disaster funds to be dispersed first. He said while the programs provide different kinds of support — for example, the state will cover funding repairs to subsistence fishing camps — the relief funding cannot be duplicated on the same projects, like for home repair work. If that occurs, the state will seek repayment from residents or disqualify them from future benefits, according to a division update.

Storm survivors are still encouraged to apply for state disaster assistance and FEMA disaster assistance to cover different costs as the recovery effort continues. Additional assistance is offered by the American Red Cross.

There are currently 600 storm evacuees staying in non-congregate shelters, like hotels, and the process of transitioning to longer term housing is ongoing, Zidek said.

“Our goal is to get as many people as possible into some type of temporary housing by Christmas,” he said. “It’s kind of a lofty goal. We might not be able to get everyone in there, but we want to move a large number of people in non-congregate shelters to something that will be more longer term and more comfortable.”

The Alaska National Guard will largely depart the region and return home by Tuesday, a spokesperson said, except for one UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter air crew stationed in Bethel, which will remain ready to respond at the request of state emergency officials.

As of Monday, the Alaska National Guard reported its service members have assisted 18 communities in the storm disaster relief effort in what officials say is the largest off-the-road-system mobilization in Alaska history.

National Guard service members evacuated 1,160 residents from the region and assisted with resupply efforts, delivering 350,000 pounds of cargo and supplies to coastal villages and logging 364 flight hours. They transported emergency personnel throughout the region, and service members also cleared miles of boardwalks, removed tons of debris, assessed almost 500 homes and secured or moved 94 caskets displaced by the storm.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is now considering who may fill two legislative seats vacated by state senators seeking higher office.

Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, resigned Nov. 3 to run for lieutenant governor, and Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, resigned Nov. 14 to run for governor.

On Sunday, Republicans in Hughes’ district proposed three local residents to fill her seat: Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, Matanuska-Susitna school board member Tom Bergey, and Gerrie Deal of Palmer.

Under state law, Dunleavy does not have to pick any of the three, but Republican Party rules state that local party officials will propose nominees to the governor in the event of a vacancy.

Dunleavy has until Dec. 14 — 30 days after Hughes’ resignation — to fill the seat.

The deadline to fill Shower’s vacant seat is coming up sooner: Republicans in his district have nominated Reps. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, and George Rauscher, R-Sutton, for the vacancy, as well as Ryan Sheldon, a former aide to Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage.

Any person picked for the Senate must be confirmed with a majority vote by the Senate’s Republican members, which includes four remaining members of the all-Republican Senate minority as well as the five Republicans who are in the Senate’s majority caucus.

If Dunleavy picks a current member of the state House for either seat, he will create a vacancy that he must fill within 30 days.

That person — or those people — will almost certainly join the House’s 19-person all-Republican minority caucus, whose leadership is in flux.

On Saturday, House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said she would resign immediately as minority leader.

The resignation came after two members of the minority met with her and said there were enough votes to remove her as leader. That meeting was first described by Jeff Landfield of the Alaska Landmine.

Her resignation, which had not been requested, leaves the minority’s position uncertain ahead of the legislative session. The minority leader is traditionally in charge of opposition messaging and is the main negotiator between the House majority and minority caucuses.

This past year, members of the House minority repeatedly diverged on key topics, including a vote on whether or not to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s education funding vetoes.

The Alaska House is currently controlled by a 21-person majority that includes Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Alaska commercial fishers caught much more salmon in 2025 than they did last year, but the money they earned was modest, according to the statewide harvest report.

The state commercial salmon haul totaled 194.8 million fish, the 12^th largest since 1985, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s preliminary annual summary, released this month.

Measured in pounds, the 2025 harvest was about average compared to the last 40 years the agency has been keeping an all-species record, the Fish and Game summary said.

But the amount of money paid to harvesters delivering their fish – known as ex-vessel value – was the 13^th lowest since 1975, when adjusted for inflation. This year’s total was $541 million, the department said.

This year’s totals represent a big improvement from last year, when only 101.2 million salmon were harvested. It was the third lowest haul since 1985 and the ex-vessel value was $304 million, the third lowest since 1975 when adjusted for inflation. In weight, the 2024 harvest totaled 450 million pounds, the lowest on record.

Alaska salmon, particularly Chinook, have been shrinking in size over the past decades, a trend that scientists attribute to a variety of factors, including climate change and ocean conditions.

This year, sockeye salmon accounted for the most value among Alaska’s five salmon species, continuing the long-term pattern in the industry. A little over a quarter of the landed fish were sockeye, but they made up 58% of the value, according to the Department of Fish and Game’s summary.

Pink salmon, the most plentiful and cheapest of the Alaska species, made up 61% of the total fish harvested and 21% of the total ex-value. The pink salmon harvest was about 14% less than expected at the start of the season, the department said.

At the other end of the volume spectrum, the statewide Chinook harvest, which accounted for only 181,892 of the 194.8 million total, was 26% higher than predicted in the preseason forecast, the department said.

Chum salmon accounted for 10% of the harvest and coho accounted for 1%, the department said.

The harvest totals are preliminary and subject to revision as more information is received, the department said.