U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, today responded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) watershed assessment on the implications of a hypothetical copper mining project similar to the Pebble Mine project in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

"EPA is playing a dangerous game, using hypothetical situations to shut down job creation," Vitter said, "Last Friday's watershed assessment adds to the growing list of examples of the far-left environmentalist agenda dominating what should be a rational and public process in evaluating and approving new domestic projects. This report could be used as ammunition for the EPA and environmentalist allies to continue their effort to kill the Pebble Mine project. EPA has already spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer-provided dollars sponsoring an initial peer review conference. This report is the Agency's second effort to push propaganda in support of a preemptive veto of the Pebble Mine project, which could create over 2,000 jobs for mine construction and 1,000 mining jobs."

Sen. Vitter has long supported a more public and transparent EPA, especially regarding the processes and science used in their decision-making. Click here to read Sen. Vitter and Sen. Roger Wicker's (R-Miss.) February letter to EPA's Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe on EPA's justification of preemptively vetoing the Pebble Mine Project.

 

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