FAIRBANKS — The director of the Alaska Miners Association says coastal zone management as proposed by a citizens initiative would wreak havoc on the industry.
Deantha Crockett said Tuesday her association has joined with the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and the Resource Development Council for Alaska to form No on Ballot Measure 2 to fight the initiative. Voters will cast ballots on it Aug. 28.
The initiative would allow appointed officials to influence certain state permits, Crockett said, and possibly kill major development projects.
“We’ll have a program where one person can shut down a project,” she said.
The initiative would establish a modified version of a 35-year-old program that expired last summer when the Legislature and Gov. Sean Parnell could not agree on how to extend it.
Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho, chairman of the Alaska Sea Party, the organization of municipal officials and others promoting the initiative, said the measure will cut through red tape, not create more.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the initiative would establish a modified version of a 35-year-old program that expired last summer. The coastal zone management program ended when Gov. Sean Parnell and state lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on extending it.
Alaska is the only coastal state in the U.S. that has not joined the federal coastal zone management program.
Botelho, a former Alaska attorney general, said the old program provided a venue for local, state and federal officials to discuss issues affecting coasts and co coordinate permitting.
Federal officials have mandate to participate without the program, he said.
The initiative would create the Alaska Coastal Policy Board. It would highlight areas of local concern, Botelho said, would not replace Alaska permitting agencies.
Four state agency commissioners and nine locally nominated public members from each state region would make up the board.
“This sense of individual veto power, I think, is much overblown,” Botelho said.
The initiative was sought because lawmakers showed “little enthusiasm” for new version of the program last session, he said.
“We urged the Legislature to move on a bill, and we made clear that their focus should be on passing a bill,” Botelho said. “It didn’t need to be ours.”
Crockett told the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce that the miners association does not oppose a coastal management program but wants a more development-friendly version.
“The initiative is very unfair to industry,” Crockett said.
The lieutenant governor’s office, following a requirement on initiatives passed in 2010, has planned 10 hearings around the state on the measure. The first is July 2 in Soldotna.
Comments (9)
Add commentHyperbole
"The director of the Alaska Miners Association says coastal zone management as proposed by a citizens initiative would wreak havoc on the industry."
Translation: It's inconvenient (for us) when citizens have a voice in what we do on public land.
“We’ll have a program where one person can shut down a project”
Translation: We'll tell whatever lies it takes to kill this initiative.
Forum
At least it’s a forum for state citizen participation. The Board, I would expect, would be diverse so that the debate can be meaningful and inclusive. This article is full of examples of skepticism, as Lat58 highlights, which is good for the discussion. Factual rebuttals, perhaps presented in the article, would have been nice.
Why should Alaskans vote for
Why should Alaskans vote for this program?
No. 1 Because it Empowers Alaskans in federal decisions that impact our coasts
No. 2 Because it makes it easier to do business in Alaska by cutting through red tape
No. 3 Because it gives Alaska's communities an effective voice balancing competing demands on coastal resources.
No. 4 Your Coast - Your Voice
VOTE FOR THE COAST ON AUGUST 28TH:
"YES" ON 2
repeat
repeat
International Scientists rpt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/earth-tipping-point-study_n_157...
Earth is rapidly headed toward a catastrophic breakdown if humans don't get their act together, according to an international group of scientists.
Writing Wednesday (June 6) in the journal Nature, the researchers warn that the world is headed toward a tipping point marked by extinctions and unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago.
Could it be?
Could it be that those wishing to profit from some project don't want to hear, see, or read any opposing comments?
If someone were to say to Alaskans, "we have a great idea on how we can make money off of your resources, but don't try to tell us that you may have information we don't want to accept, we don't want to hear what you may have learned over many years." Does anyone expect Alaskans to accept that??
That seems to be exactly what is happening.
There are those that seem to see Alaska and its resources simply and only as place to make a profit and then, eventually leave.
A coastal zone management program is simply a voice for Alaskans to say "Before you come to "develop" and profit from my State, I want to have a voice in what will happen."
There is a non-too subtle insinuation here by those from outside our state wishing to profit from our resources. That is "You folks don't know anything. We know how to make money for ourselves and out shareholders. Please do not interfere"
How anti Alaskan can any one
How anti Alaskan can any one be?
These groups want it all and they do not want anyone else to have any say about it.
Alaska Miners Association,
Alaska Oil and Gas Association
Resource Development Council
oh, and Sean Parnell hes all over this
Alaskans need to push back on this and take control of our state back!
Vote YES on 2 this is our state, it does not belong to the oil, gas and mining industries
these are the same people
these are the same people that talk about Big Government and over reach
a bunch of self serving hypocrites is what they are .