Activity Report Explorer

Alaska S.O.L.E.S • Entered by Loren Karro on March 30, 2020

Prepare and give oral comments to AIDEA regarding funding of the Ambler Road

March 25, 2020 – March 27, 2020

Key Issue: Oil, Gas, or Mineral Development
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Landscape/area: BLM AK – Arctic District Office

Measurable Outcomes

Outcome 1: Advocacy actions (1 comments)

Short Description of Activity

Commented on the Proposal before the AIDEA (Alaska Industrial Development & Energy Agency) to transfer $35 million in funding to a fund to be used fo the study and development of the road to the Ambler mining district (starting at the Haul Road) during an emergency meeting supposedly held to address concerns with funding for businesses impacted by the pandemic emergency shut down..

Reflection/Evaluation

Although 100 % of the comments over 2 days were against this proposal, the Board unanimously voted to go ahead with the funding. The reasons given boiled down to having the funding ready in time for the summer season to create up to 100 temporary jobs. If this I had known this reasoning ahead of time, or had thought to anticipate it, I would have made more comments in line with how they could save many more jobs than that by putting the monies in their loan funds for the state businesses that would suffer because of the shutdown. I spoke mostly on the inappropriateness of using an emergency meeting about such loan funds to transfer these funds to a project benefitting a multinational partnership and circumventing the normal public notice requirements. In a later conversation with Kathy, we discussed how to be more effective in our comments in the future, and one idea was to try to anticipate or research what the ‘given’ motive for the action would be and directly addressing it. A bit line from my comments was quoted in the Alaska Daily News the next day.

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