Pebble Mine and the Alaska Senate Election

A while back, Rachel posted about Alaska's Pebble Mine.

Judd Legum (POMONA `00) and Tesnim Zekeria report at Popular Information:

Control of the United States Senate may come down to the results in Alaska, where Senator Dan Sullivan (R) is facing a serious challenge from Dr. Al Gross. In recent days, the race has centered on $500 billion of gold and other precious metals hidden deep in Southwest Alaska.

About two-thirds of Alaskans oppose permitting extraction of metals at the site. The opposition to the proposal, known as Pebble Mine, is centered around the site's proximity to the Bristol Bay salmon fishery, which is treasured by commercial fish farmers, recreational fishers, and Alaska Natives. In 2014, Sullivan opposed a decision by the Obama EPA to shelve the project.

Since then, Sullivan's position has been hard to pin down. But in explosive tapes released late last month, the CEO of the company developing the mine, Pebble Limited Partnership, said that Sullivan's vagueness was strategic and, based on backchannels with Sullivan's office, he was confident Sullivan would not stand in the way of the project.

After the release of the tapes, Sullivan abruptly changed his position and, for the first time, said he was definitively opposed to the mine. But Sullivan has thus far refused to return campaign contributions connected to Pebble Limited Partnership. A Popular Information investigation reveals that Sullivan has received at least $35,050 in campaign contributions tied to the mine, more than three-and-a-half times what has been previously reported.