Inletkeeper Blog
11th OCS 5 Year Plan Talking Points & Comment Guidance
Front and center talking points: With new offshore oil and gas development, it’s only a question of when accidents and spills will occur. It doesn’t have to be on the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster to be a catastrophe for Cook Inlet. A recent estimate from Lease...
Where Hilcorp drills, they spill
With Hilcorp as the major oil company operating in Cook Inlet, every Alaskan should be worried about plans for new offshore oil leases.
Cook Inlet at a Crossroads
Cook Inlet | Tikahtnu is a special place. Its waters, salmon, wildlife, and communities have sustained life here for millennia. That didn’t happen by accident—and it won’t continue without people willing to stand up, speak out, and stay engaged. Thanks to supporters like you, Cook Inletkeeper has done exactly that for more than 30 years.
A new federal offshore plan proposes five new lease sales in Lower Cook Inlet
Earlier this year, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) initiated a national five-year planning process for offshore oil and gas lease sales. The existing plan wasn’t set to expire until 2029, but it didn’t line up with the Trump administration’s overtly pro-oil approach. So BOEM threw the plan out, and now proposes to open an extensive amount of Alaska’s coastal oceans — 21 total leases from Southeast to the Arctic — to industrial development.
Protecting What We Love, Building What We Need
As Homer Drawdown prepares to launch our fourth solution in the near year, we are forging ahead with a new focus: local waste streams. Roughly one-third of food is wasted globally, and likewise, organic material makes up about a third of what ends up in our local landfill.
The Story of the Johnson Tract Mine — and What it Threatens — is Bigger Than a Single Project
The Johnson Tract Mine, spearheaded by Contago Ore, is a proposed gold, zinc, lead, copper, and silver mine at the base of Mt. Iliamna (a gigantic volcano perched on one of the most seismically active regions globally), inside the boundaries of Lake Clark National Park. While the mine site sits on a 20,942-acre private inholding owned by Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI), its impacts would extend far beyond that parcel.
SB-92: How to Keep Alaska’s Budget From Driving Over a Cliff
Taxing oil and gas S-Corporations in the same manner as C-corporations is an important first step in repairing Alaska’s fiscal foundations. As long as oil and gas extraction is a significant source of state revenue, Alaska will be undermining itself by preserving a loophole that allows Hilcorp, now the state’s major industry player, to profit from our resources without paying income tax that would be collected in any other state.
“Government Efficiency”
Gov. Mike Dunleavy published Administrative Order 360 in early August to reduce “administrative and economic burdens associated with regulatory compliance.” But the order is more likely to slow down rather than speed up decisions we need for sustainable energy, as well as weakening protections for the ecosystems Alaskans depend on.
Unexpected Life in Unmapped Waters
I’ve waded in what I consider the most beautiful waters in the world here in the Cook Inlet watershed. I’ve chased every species of salmon that call these special waters home. However, after teaming up with the Kenai Watershed Forum (KWF) for Salmon Habitat Mapping field days—a program designed to engage volunteers in documenting local, unmapped salmon habitats as part of Inletkeeper’s Local Solutions series—I can now say that fish also live in unexpected places.
Become the Change YOU Want to See: Supporting Local Solutions
These solutions require you and your neighbors who live here, love this place, and depend on a healthy watershed to help shape them.