Administration flip-flops leave Bristol Bay vulnerable

UPDATE (7-18-25): Carrying on with the whipsaw flip-flop theme, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday filed court papers that suggest the DOJ was changing its mind and once again supporting protections for Bristol Bay … one week after suggesting in court papers it was open to negotiating a settlement with Pebble Mine’s owners, Northern Dynasty Minerals, and to reconsidering previous permit denials. The court filing states there is no forthcoming settlement with Northern Dynasty, whose stock price dropped 50% yesterday. As such, the DOJ appears set to continue supporting previous denials of critical Pebble permits from both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. If the DOJ sticks to this position (let’s hope so!), this would be good news as we and other organizations fight to establish permanent protections for Bristol Bay. Meantime, Pebble’s lawsuit against the permit denials is still pending, so we will continue to monitor the situation. Stay tuned!!!

Since I launched this blog in 2015, I’ve written about Bristol Bay, Alaska and the effort to protect it from the proposed Pebble Mine 16 times.

I could easily have called the blog “The Bristol