Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today reversed the Trump Administration’s approval of the Ambler mining road, a 211-mile pathway needed to access the Ambler Mining District, and asked a federal court to be allowed to reconsider analysis of the project. The district is home to large deposits of zinc and copper and would also be a major source of rare earth elements, which are necessary in an array of electronic devices, including cell phones and a variety of technologies related to national security. China has a near monopoly on rare earth elements and the United States currently relies on the Chinese for almost all of our rare earth element needs.
Alaska U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka issued the following statement:
“Once again, from over 4,000 miles away, Deb Haaland has decided that she knows more about how Alaska should manage its natural resources than we do. By undertaking further study of the Ambler mining road, she is simply employing the environmental extremist tactic to kill a project they oppose. Even though Haaland has never set foot in Alaska, despite promises to visit to hear our concerns and learn about our priorities, she has repeatedly enacted the Biden Administration policies that directly attack our industries, our working families, and our entire state economy. No other state has been specifically and systematically targeted as Alaska has been under Biden and Haaland.
“I support development, infrastructure, mining, and job creation occurring in a process that includes the perspective of all affected Alaskans, because we know better how to responsibly use our own resources than some cabal of unelected Washington, D.C. bureaucrats. We can address the concerns of Alaska Native communities without shutting down the road completely.
“To be clear: Deb Haaland would not be the Secretary of the Interior without Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who cast the tie-breaking committee vote to advance Haaland’s nomination for final confirmation. Murkowski even expressed reservations about Haaland’s radical environmental positions and the harm she could cause Alaska, but she voted for her anyway to please her D.C. pals. Murkowski continues to talk a big game about infrastructure, but all we see here in Alaska are projects getting killed by federal bureaucrats she put in charge. When I am the next senator from Alaska, I will always do what is in the best interests of our state, and look for nominees who know how to get to ‘yes’ on issues that are important to us, instead of beginning and ending at ‘no.’”
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