"The Supreme Court has rebuffed a plea by the state of Alaska to revisit a federal veto of a massive mine, an attempt by oil companies to extract themselves from a climate lawsuit and a petition from West Coast farmers seeking more water from the Klamath River Basin.

In a long list of orders released Monday, the high court declined to take up Alaska v. United States, an unusual request from the Last Frontier to skip the lower courts and have the justices directly step in to reverse EPA’s veto of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in the pristine Bristol Bay watershed, home to one of the world’s premier salmon fisheries.

The decision, marking another chapter in the Pebble mine saga, deals a significant blow to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican whose administration asked the high court in July to undo EPA’s move to block Pebble and similar extraction projects on state land in southwestern Alaska.

Alaska officials have argued that EPA’s veto, issued under a rarely used Clean Water Act authority, trampled over the state’s sovereignty and ability to regulate its lands and waters. EPA in January exercised its authority to block the project via Section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, a portion of the law that allows the agency to bar areas from being used as disposal sites — the South Fork Koktuli River and North Fork Koktuli River watersheds, in the case of Pebble."

Hannah Northey, Lesley Clark, and Jennifer Yachnin report for E&E News January 8, 2024. [2]