SUBSCRIBE NOW
and SAVE 87%

Help
|

Connect

|

Sign up
|

Log in

Log in with your social account:

Or, you can log in or sign up using Forbes.

New Posts

Most Popular Highest-Grossing
Actors

Lists 30 Under 30

Video 2012's Best Ads

Patrick
Michaels, Contributor

At the interface of public science and public policy

Follow Following
Unfollow

Op/Ed

|

3/02/2012 @ 5:58PM |1,163 views

The Environmental Protection Agency Vs. Hybrid Cars?

1
comments, 0 called-out
Comment
Now

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

Comment
Now

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

Could the EPA inadvertently harm electric car sales under its current
hyper-regulatory regime? It sounds crazy, but…

This story starts in the wilderness north of Lake Iliamna, where quite
possibly the largest unexploited copper deposit in North America sits. It’s
owned by The Pebble Partnership, a marriage of financial convenience between
Northern Dynasty Minerals, of Vancouver, and Anglo-American PLC, a mining giant
headquartered in London.

The Pebble find covers about 20 square miles, and its small drainage basins
are about 125 miles from Bristol Bay, the world’s largest sockeye salmon
fishery. It is in the headwaters of the Koktuli River, which drains into
Nushagak, which winds up in the bay. Another stream flows from Pebble into the
eighth-largest lake in the U.S., Lake Iliamna, which is the source of the
Kvichak River, which also ends in Bristol Bay.

Bristol Bay just happens to be the world’s largest Sockeye Salmon fishery,
and while it seems amazing that the fish, which spawn and die in freshwater
streams, could make it all the way to Pebble, they do. I’ve seen brown bears (of
which the “cuddly” polar bear is a color morph) feasting away there.

The Pebble Partnership is keenly aware of all of this, having spent more than
$120 million in baseline ecological studies in and around its site. So are
conservations, some sportsmen, and commercial fishing interests in Bristol Bay.
Anglo-American obviously has plenty of money, and so does businessman Bob
Gillam, purportedly the richest Alaskan, who also owns a big house not far from
Pebble. Gillam has funded a major advertising campaign against Pebble, to which
Pebble responds that it will only develop the mine if it can be confident that
the mine will cause “no net loss” of fish.

The mine is going to use a lot of water—some estimates have it as the amount
that a city of a million would throughput every year—and that water will have to
be stored somewhere instead of running into Lake Iliamna and Bristol Bay. Never
thinking small, Pebble proposes the world’s largest earthen dam to hold things
in.

Pebble hasn’t even applied for a mining permit at this point, but opponents
are trying to pre-emptively stop even that, petitioning the EPA in Washington to
preemptively stop the mine because of its potential to harm local wetlands.

The EPA seems to be going along. In response, it proposed a massive analysis
of the Nushagak and Kvichak watersheds, to be done by the magical time of late
October in a presidential election year. Our greener friends have made Pebble an
electoral litmus test.

The combined watersheds are around 21,000 square miles. Pebble spent about
120 million to study 20 square miles. Do the math.

So EPA now proposes dry-labbing it, with a study of the impacts of a
hypothetical mine on Bristol Bay. They have already started the process of
picking peer-reviewers with an “independent” head-hunting company.

I don’t think even the most naïve here in Washington don’t see a foregone
conclusion coming up. That’s clearly what the EPA had in mind when it wrote
the “Technical Support Document”, the background material for their decision to
regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Why change now?

Speaking of greenhouse gases, EPA’s fuel economy standards could be as high
as 62mpg by 2025 for certain classes of passenger cars. That almost certainly
means—despite their currently low sales—more Chevy Volts and their clones. The
new Volt commercial that says it is “the car that America HAD to build” isn’t
kidding!

Page 1
2
« Previous Page
Next Page »

1
comments, 0 called-out
Comment
Now

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

Comment
Now

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

Print

Report Corrections

Reprints & Permissions

Post Your Comment

Cancel
reply

Post Your Reply

Please log
in or sign
up to comment.

Enter Your Comment

Submit
Comment

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find
particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes
network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

Comments

Called-Out

Expand All Comments

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

+ expand 1
comments

Follow Comments Following
Comments Unfollow Comments

Most Read on Forbes

News

People

Places

Companies

+ show more

Patrick
Michaels Contributor

Follow Following
Unfollow

+ show more

I am Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute
and a senior fellow in research and economic development at George Mason
University. My writing has been published in major scientific journals,
including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters,
Journal of Climate, Nature and Science, as well as publications like the
Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston
Chronicle and Journal of Commerce. I have a Ph.D. in ecological climatology from
the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed
are those of the writer.

Patrick Michaels’ Popular Posts

Why
Hasn't The Earth Warmed In Nearly 15 Years? 61,374
views

Chevy
Volt: Flagship Model Of The Government-Industrial Complex 42,908 views

Get
Real: Hurricane Irene Should Be Renamed "Hurricane Hype" 38,237 views

Voodoo
Economics? How About Voodoo Climate Science? 20,592
views

Maybe
It Should Be Called the Chevrolet 'Vote' 16,591
views

More from Patrick Michaels

Patrick’s RSS
Feed

Patrick’s
Profile

Who Just Made a Billion Dollars?

Our Real-Time Billionaires scoreboard tracks the biggest holdings
for 50 of the world’s wealthiest people. See who's up & who's
down right now »

Inside Forbes

The Most Powerful People: The 71
Who Shape The World

There are nearly 7.1 billion
people on the planet. These are the 71 men and women who matter the most.

see photos

The
Highest-Paid Women In Music

America's Best Small
Companies

see photos

Best States For
Business

Real-Time
Billionaires

Channels

Business

Investing

Tech

Entrepreneurs

Op/Ed

Leadership

Lifestyle

Lists

Company Info

Forbes
Careers

Advertising Information

Forbes Conferences

Investment
Newsletters

Reprints
& Permissions

Terms and
Conditions

Privacy
Statement

Contact Us

Sitemap

Help

Affiliate Sites

Forbes China

Forbes India

Forbes Israel

Forbes Middle
East

Forbes Poland

Forbes Romania

Forbes Russia

Forbes Ukraine

RealClear
Politics

RealClear
Markets

RealClear
World

RealClear
Sports

Data Partners

Market Data by Morningstar

Thomson Reuters

AdChoices

Publications

Free
Trial Issue

Subscriber
Services

Buy Back
Issues

2012 Forbes.com LLC™   All
Rights Reserved