Environmentalists sue when they don’t get their way

To the editor:

Again I find that the ordinary person on the street is bombarded with misinformation from the parties who oppose the opening of the coal mine in the Wishbone Hill area. The accusation that Usibelli and the state of Alaska are in collusion, as inferred by Kirby Spangler in his May 6 letter to the editor, “Solution to Usibelli debate is simple,” had one thing right: the solution is simple.

The state of Alaska has the records of payments for leases, assessment work done or fees paid in lieu of actual assessment work done, and all necessary records pertaining to the validity of the records of said leases. It is part of their job.

When the statehood act was passed, the Chickaloon and Sutton coal mining areas were declared part of the mineral areas the state was to get from the federal government. Usibelli acquired the permits after that time.

The point is the permits were under state control when Usibelli acquired them. The state should be able to make a determination from those records as to whether the permits are valid or not. It apparently has made that determination.

Because the determination is not what the environmental organizations want they take it to the Office of Surface Mining, which normally handles operational compliances that deviate from a company’s plan of mining and not validity of leases. OSM can check the validity, but most often relies on the state’s Department of Natural Resources to determine those things because the state keeps the records on file, but they check the state’s records.

Once again the environmental organizations are attempting to drag the federal government into a local difference of opinion. The reason being, the higher they go away from the local level to the federal court system and the bureaucracy of the federal government, the more influence they have.

I haven’t heard of the environmental organizations filing a request for those records and they offered no proof of any wrongdoing by the state or Usibelli concerning the records. I think that once again the environmentalists wish to just make it so expensive through these tactics that Usibelli will throw up their hands and say, “It’s to expensive!”

Richard Caywood

Palmer