Looking back and forward
As we begin the New Year, naturally there's excitement about the promise of things to come. Each of us has aspirations for 2008: projects we hope to accomplish, resolutions we hope to keep, and journeys we long to make. But the future is informed by the past, and it is only in looking back that we can chart the best course forward. There are a few issues that commanded our collective attention in 2007 that deserve at least as much focus in 2008.
Sound off on the important issues at
As last year wound down, there were reports about negotiations toward finally opening the Kensington Mine. These resulted from last May's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the tailings-disposal plan duly permitted by the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Clean Water Act, and put the brakes on the project. While further appeals were taken, Coeur Alaska completed construction of the mine. Now the facilities are all done, but the mine isn't open because the tailings can't be deposited in Lower Slate Lake and have nowhere else to go.
Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho convened talks between the mine's management and the environmental-activist groups opposed to the mine to seed some sort of compromise. A plan emerged that calls for the tailings to be converted into paste. While that may be a step forward if it pans out, negotiations also yielded plans for a different marine transfer facility location, no longer using Cascade Point as had long been in the works. This may seem reasonable at first glance, but in fact it completely disregards the long-held plans of Goldbelt, Inc., which owns the Cascade Point site and was counting on its place in the overall Kensington project as a good business venture. One would be foolish not to wonder what else the mine's opponents will demand next. It is hard to negotiate when the party on the other side of the table isn't forthcoming about its true objectives. Sadly, it seems at times their only sincere goal is to keep the mine from ever opening.
New roads are an issue that percolated throughout the news in 2007, and they'll be bubbling their way to a front page near you in the New Year too. While Gov. Palin has officially stopped the state's involvement in Ketchikan's Gravina Island Bridge project, she has thankfully continued to support the Lynn Canal Highway. Those who just don't want this road to happen continued to argue that it was impossible last year, even though it clearly is possible. It may be costly, but its economic feasibility in the context of Juneau's future dwarfs that of perpetual ferry-service subsidies, to say nothing of a capital move.
Palin had a successful first year in office, not least among her successes being the passage of legislation augmenting the petroleum profits tax. I am hopeful her other big piece of hydrocarbon legislation, the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, will produce similarly good things for Alaska.
No one can deny the world's need for non-hydrocarbon alternative energy sources, and Alaska's natural gas will play a key part in the transition to those sources. As we move into a new energy future, Alaska's reserves of traditional energy sources will also keep the economic hearth aglow on the Last Frontier.
The garbage problem that grows in Juneau's midst is another 2007 issue that promises to continue to occupy us in 2008. The Juneau Assembly's decision to seek regulatory control and to pursue a meaningful recycling program is a positive step. Even in the cold winter days, the odor of the landfill in Lemon Creek is noticeable, as is the challenge of responsibly disposing of one's recyclable materials. I am very hopeful that progress on this most local of issues will continue with a possible partnership with our Southeast neighbors.
All in all we had plenty to think about in 2007, and that's not going to change in the New Year. Ideally we'll make some major strides forward on some of the foregoing issues, and be poised at the dawn of 2009 to tackle the new challenges that we encounter in the coming year.
• Ben Brown is a lifelong Alaskan.