WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress from across the Lower 48 convened Thursday to argue the fate of the Bristol Bay watershed and the proposed Pebble mine project, with some Republican lawmakers framing the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions to block the project as a sign of larger bias and anti-industry environmental aggression in the agency.
But the fate of the massive gold, copper and molybdenum deposit in Southwest Alaska remains unknown, despite more than a decade of discussion, scientific and legal review and ongoing intervention by the agency’s opponents in Congress.
Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who held a hearing Thursday, has taken the side of Pebble in the dispute as part of an ongoing effort to reveal alleged anti-business biases of EPA employees.
