Reason #34 not to vote for Sarah Palin for anything

The Pebble Mine Scandal

Sarah Palin talks about Pebble Mine during her campaign for governor:

“I am a commercial fisherman; my daughter’s name is Bristol,” said Ms. Palin, then a candidate for governor. “I could not support a project that risks one resource that we know is a given, and that is the world’s richest spawning grounds, over another resource.”

A series of events since Sarah Palin's election:

The governor appointed mining industry officials to lead her Department of Natural Resources, which regulates mines. And her environmental commissioner is a former lawyer for Red Dog, which is Alaska’s largest mine and has a history of violations of the Clean Water Act.

Ken Taylor, a former fish and game official who was Ms. Palin’s point man in her argument that global warming did not threaten polar bears, became environmental vice president for the Pebble Partnership in July.

Other moves by the Palin administration could also help Pebble. It plans to use a $7 million federal earmark — a practice she criticized on the vice presidential campaign trail — for a major upgrade of a road through the snow-capped Chigmit range, records show. There are no villages along this route, but it would form the first leg of a proposed 200-mile thoroughfare between Pebble Mine and the Pacific Ocean.

The Palin administration declined to investigate ethics concerns raised by a Republican lawmaker who says mining officials have tried to buy the loyalty of native leaders, not least by paying $25,000 per month to house workers in the homes of influential locals. One of those houses is owned by Ethel and John Adcox, the parents of a close friend of Todd Palin, the governor’s husband.

Mining companies paid to fly Mr. Palin, who grew up near there and is an unofficial adviser to his wife, on a fact-finding tour of Alaska mines.

The industry spent $12 million fighting the referendum.

The Clean Water Act, also known as Ballot Measure 4 is an initiated state statute that was aimed at stemming the discharge of toxic materials from large metallic mineral mines in Alaska. It appeared on the statewide August 26 ballot.

Sarah Palin spoke out against the measure. Her words immediately appeared in television commercials paid for by the mines, and the referendum failed.

Issues still being reviewed:

Pollution Zone - Environment - Prohibiting pollution mixing zones in salmon and other fisheries - Under review by the Lt. Governor

Protect Alaska's Clean Water Act v.3 (2008) - Environment - Restrict release of pollutants from mining - In litigation

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Sarah Palin changed her tune since her campaign to become governor of Alaska.

Either she didn't mean what she said then, her words just another series of soundbites for political purposes, or she changed her mind. If that is the case, what made her change her mind so drastically?

The industry spent $12 million fighting the referendum.

Good article here from the NYT