Resolution tramples health and public process

One of the basic tenets of democracy is that the people should have a voice in their government. Unfortunately, when he cut off public testimony regarding the resolution to support the proposed Wishbone Hill open pit coal mine, Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss showed he doesn’t agree. In addition, he manipulated the process to cut short the testimony primarily from people who didn’t agree with his resolution.

Amazingly, only assemblyman Warren Keogh stood for the people that night, asking that anyone wishing to testify be given that chance. Other assembly members sat silent.

The resolution to support open-pit coal mining is clearly flawed. The sixth “whereas” states Usibelli Coal Mine “has demonstrated responsible, sustainable exploration and mining practices.” Sustainable mining practices? These days, the word “sustainable” is a popular buzzword, so everyone likes to toss it out, but it’s clearly misused here. I’ve been invited to sixth-grade classes where students have a clear grasp on what “sustainable” means. They use a very simple definition — it means an activity can last forever.

Forever. So, just to be clear, there is nothing sustainable about the mining, transport and burning of coal.

Whereas No. 10 states this open-pit mine will be a “zero discharge mine.” This somehow ignores the effects of 80-plus mph winter Matanuska winds blowing during mining operations or over huge coal piles. It also ignores the fact that Usibelli plans to store hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic coal slurry in unlined ponds, where the toxins will make their way into the groundwater.

But why quibble with the language in the resolution? Before testimony was arbitrarily cut short, many people testified to their concerns about impacts of this open-pit mine to people’s health and to our air and water quality. Many spoke in favor of jobs.

A few also touched on the bigger picture surrounding decisions to support activities like coal mining, posing the question: just what kind of a community do we want to be?

This is really the discussion we should be having. Do we want to continue acting like an energy colony for countries burning coal? Working at jobs known to degrade our health and our life-support systems, shipping resources out to make a few people very wealthy? Do we want to focus on projects with 15- or 20-year life spans, producing boom and bust cycles and the attendant employment roller coasters?

This resolution tells the world we want to be just like West Virginia — and we know how folks are just flocking to move there. Let’s instead think about another group of folks who could not have a voice — the future borough residents who have yet to be born but will be dramatically impacted by our decisions. These people will be looking for jobs in 25 or 50 or 100 years. Will they think the borough still has the things that contribute to a high quality of life? We are trustees for these folks, and I think we can do a better job.

Let’s start laying the foundation for a truly sustainable, diverse, vibrant and local economy. Let’s seek and support economic activity that promotes 21st-century jobs. Using this type of logic, we’d look for ways to use those lands to promote clean energy production, including solar, wind and biomass and to enhance local food security.

Rather than a resolution that was clearly written by Usibelli, how about a resolution to protect the health, safety and welfare of all borough residents now and in the future? We need a statement advocating for energy efficiency and renewable energy, local food and local living-wage jobs. In fact, a rapid way to both create jobs and save taxpayers’ money would be to radically improve the energy efficiency of our schools and other public buildings.

In supporting the mayor’s resolution, five members of the assembly voted to boldly embrace the 19th century. It’s a pretty sad vision, akin to telling our children we want to be the best at building typewriters, except that the human and environmental health impacts are far worse. There is no future in coal, and far too many in the room were not even allowed to voice their opinions.

Mark Masteller lives in Wasilla.