Pruitt seeks to limit the EPA’s veto power over projects that would pollute waterways—good news for the likes of Alaska's Pebble Mine
For the past 46 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been able to press a fail-safe stop button on industrial projects that fill or destroy waterways. Now Administrator Scott Pruitt is proposing a new policy that would gut the EPA’s ability to use such veto power. While the agency has only ever used this last-ditch measure 13 times, Pruitt claims it hampers economic development and certainty for companies looking to build, such as Northern Dynasty Minerals, the company behind Alaska's potentially disastrous Pebble Mine project—which the EPA just so happened to propose restrictions against back in 2014.
Related Content
Skip carousel items
Pruitt Cozies Up to Pebble Mine, Hamstrings EPA Authority
Expert BlogTaryn Kiekow Heimer
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a memo proposing to gut his own authority under the Clean Water Act to block or restrict highly destructive projects, such as the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
Pruitt Moves to End Protections from Waste Dumping
Press Release
WASHINGTON - In his latest attempt to save his job, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced efforts today to limit EPA’s ability to stop highly destructive activities such as mountaintop-removal coal mining from destroying streams, estuaries or other rich…
EPA to Withdraw Water Protections, Open Door for Pebble Mine
Expert BlogTaryn Kiekow Heimer
EPA’s proposed withdrawal is an outrageous capitulation to mining interests at the expense of the American people and our economy.
Another Major Investor Leaves the Pebble Mine
Expert BlogJoel Reynolds
In latest blow to Northern Dynasty Minerals, the people of Bristol Bay hail the failure of its negotiations with First Quantum Minerals.
EPA Suspends Withdrawal of Oversight of Pebble Mine
Expert BlogJoel Reynolds
Pruitt reverses course on proposed withdrawal, but the decision carries no actual protection from dangerous mine.