On Saturday, August 11th, Alaska's Representative Don Young issued a press release in response to Administrator Dennis McLerran of the EPA's claims that well over 90 percent of the letters to the EPA support the Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment.

In his release, Young said, “Once again the EPA is not listening to Alaskans – and even worse, they’re misleading the public,” said Rep. Young. “The vast majority of these so-called ‘comments’ did not come from the people who should be involved in making a decision – Alaskans. In fact, an overwhelming majority of the comments were actually mass messages sent by radical environmental groups.

“As I have said from the outset, I am reserving judgment on the Pebble Mine until the permitting process runs its course. The proposed mine is located on State of Alaska lands and to let the EPA come into Alaska and mull preemptively vetoing this project before the permitting process even begins, would make a mockery of both the federal and State of Alaska permitting processes. Alaskans should be the ones to decide the ultimate fate of this project – not outside interests.”

Representative Young also posted a bullet list in his statement giving approximate totals of the emails and their origination.

• Natural Resources Defense Council (New York, NY) – 85,000 e-mails
• National Wildlife Federation (Reston, VA) – 53,000 e-mails
• National Parks Conservation Association (Washington, DC) – 30,000 e-mails
• Pew Environmental Group (Washington, DC) – 14,000 e-mails
• Sierra Club (San Francisco, CA) – 2,000 e-mails

He pointed out that Many of these e-mails appear to have been generated by websites that ask visitors to send a pre-written message to the EPA. All that’s required is entering a few details and clicking on a link, and there is no way to prevent someone from using a false name and address.

To view an example of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s mass e-mail campaign from Regulations.gov, click here.